Working Together -- How?

There are a variety of ways in which the police and the mental health system can work together to manage first response situations—those situations in which the police are called to deal with an incident involving a person who appears to be mentally ill. Some case are clear cut—the person in question has committed a significant offence, or the person making the call knows what the disposition of the case should be and merely needs your assistance to make it happen. But often, it is not clear what the most desirable outcome is and the frontline officer could use some assistance in making an appropriate decision. How can the police and the mental health system work together? There are several models that have been employed. There is no evidence at this point that any one model works better than any other model. A variety of factors come into play—the size of the police service, the available mental health resources, the geographical area served, the previous training of officers, existing internal expertise, police service and mental health services commitment of time and money to this issue, the relative size of the problem, pre-existing hospital/police relationships….

There is no clear right answer. But there are options--options which can be used alone or in combination: