Note
"January 2004".
Author(s) affiliated with: Police Executive Research Forum.
Published by the TAPA Center for Jail Diversion, a branch of the National GAINS Center; funded by the Center for Mental Health Services.
Summary
The creation of community-based programs designed to serve people with mental illness did not follow the deinstitutionization of the 1960s and 70s as intended. The mental health, and other community agencies continue to be challenged by situations involving people with mental illness. Over the last 15 to 20 years, law enforcement agencies nationwide have increasingly developed programs or practices designed to serve people with mental illness. This monograph is a guide for agencies embarking on this course. It addresses what law enforcement agencies are doing nationally to improve their response to people with mental illness--largely through partnership with the mental health community--and explores how these agencies have overcome barriers to create and maintain effective programs.