Responding to Acute Mental Health Crises in Black Youth: Is It Safe to Call 911?

Mental health professionals routinely advise the public to call 911 in case of an acute mental health crisis to access emergent care and ensure safety. Although there is no national database collection process, available data shows that individuals experiencing an acute mental health crisis and Blac...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Community mental health journal 2023, Vol.59 (1), p.1-8
Hauptverfasser: Ramasamy, Ravi S., Thompson, Alysha, Simmons, Shannon
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Mental health professionals routinely advise the public to call 911 in case of an acute mental health crisis to access emergent care and ensure safety. Although there is no national database collection process, available data shows that individuals experiencing an acute mental health crisis and Black youth are both at a significantly elevated risk of being harmed or killed by law enforcement during any encounter. This brief analytic essay explores whether advising the public to call 911 is truly the best practice recommendation for Black youth in a mental health crisis. An alternative to the traditional law enforcement response is a mobile unarmed crisis response program. The authors describe successful existing programs and advocate for more widespread adoption of such teams, which likely would provide safer, cost-effective, evidence-based alternatives during acute mental health crises.
ISSN:0010-3853
1573-2789
DOI:10.1007/s10597-022-00980-4