Policing Mental Health: An Exploratory Study of Crisis Intervention and Co-Response in the Canadian Context

• In Event: Policing Responses to Mental Health Crises

Abstract

Since the de-institutionalization of persons with mental illness (PMI) in Canada, police officers have become de-facto front-line mental health responders in crisis situations. Contemporary officer training with respect to mental health is limited, unstandardized, and significantly differs between jurisdictions. To remedy this ambiguousness and lack of mental health training, select Canadian police services have elected to employ programs such as Crisis Intervention Teams (CITs) and Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams (MCITs) to better address situations involving PMI. However, there are significant gaps in the literature with respect to interactions between PMI and CITs/MCITs in a Canadian context. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the academic literature by determining how many police services in Canada employ a CIT/MCIT, why they have elected to do so, how the CIT/MCIT is implemented and organized, and the goals of each CIT/MCIT.

Author

• Jacek Koziarski, University of Ontario Institute of Technology