Annotated Bibliographies

Steadman, H.J., Deane, M.W., Borum, R., & Morrissey, J.P. (2000). Comparing outcomes of major models of police responses to mental health emergencies. Psychiatric Services, 51 (5), 645-649.

The authors of this article represent different entities within the disability and justice communities; Policy Research Associates, the state Police Academy in New York, the Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida, and Mental He alth Services Research of the University of North Carolina. The study compared three models of police responses to incidents involving people thought to have mental illness, to determine how often specialized professionals responded and how often they wer e able to resolve cases without arrest. The three sites were in large U.S. cities, and had different approaches to police handling of incidents involving people with mental illness. The results indicated all three programs had relatively low arrest rates when a specialized response was made. The data strongly suggests that collaboration between the criminal justice system, the mental health system, and the advocacy community has the potential to reduce the inappropriate arrest of persons exhibiting sympto ms of mental illness.