A landmark peer-reviewed study in Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice tracked outcomes for people experiencing a mental health crisis in five Michigan communities. Over an 11-month period, researchers found that individuals who received help from mobile crisis teams were 45.2% less likely to be arrested than those who received a law enforcement-only response. As the authors note, “only the mobile crisis response [had] a statistically significant reduced incidence rate of arrest,” suggesting these teams “may encourage crisis service pathways outside of 911 and law enforcement, which may decrease … the likelihood of future arrests,” and save law enforcement resources so they can focus on solving serious crime.
The full study is worth your time, but here are the key findings:
- Mobile Crisis Teams Significantly Reduced Arrests: “Only the mobile crisis response [had] a statistically significant reduced incidence rate of arrest…[with a] 45.2% lower incidence rate of arrest compared to law enforcement-only recipients…”
- Clinician-Led Mobile Crisis Teams—Over Other First Response Models—Made Most Significant Impact: Researchers examined “mobile crisis, co‐response, and office‐ based crisis intervention” crisis teams to mental health calls for service and found that while “all three crisis models showed fewer post-year arrests than their respective law enforcement-only comparisons only the mobile crisis response” had a statistically significant impact on lowering arrest rates.
- Mobile Crisis Teams Build Trust, May Help To Reduce Future Arrests: “Mental health service clients and their families prefer non‐law enforcement models, which may increase trust in the mobile crisis team’s recommendations…Mobile crisis teams may encourage crisis service pathways outside of 911 and law enforcement, which may decrease risk of future law enforcement contacts or arrests… The findings support the expansion of mobile crisis teams to non‐threatening mental health crises in lieu of law enforcement.”
More On Michigan’s “Reimagining [Of] Mental Health Crisis Response—And [How] It’s Working”:
Dr. Sheryl Kubiak, a dean at Wayne State University, founding director of the school’s Center for Behavioral Health and Justice and co-author of the study above, recently sat down for a sweeping interview with Robyn Vincent, a reporter with Detroit Public Radio and detailed what the state has found over the years after launching these mental health programs that have increased public safety while reducing the burden on law enforcement. Here are some of her key findings (listen to the full interview here):
- Mobile crisis response helps reduce cycling in-and-out of jail: “If it is a mobile crisis [team] that’s responding, individuals are much more likely to get into continuing treatment and less likely to end up in jail compared to a law enforcement only approach… They’re not cycling in and out of the jail over and over because they’re in a treatment unit, they’re in the appropriate system.”
- Law enforcement responses to mental health calls can escalate crises: “Often what officers are trained to do in the academy is take-control… techniques[,] because they often deal with very unsafe situations. [Those techniques] can actually escalate an individual [in a mental health crisis] and create more psychiatric symptoms that will cause either harm to other individuals… or put the officer in a position where they feel fearful for their own life… [Further] historically, law enforcement officers have not had the training to help them identify when [a call is] a mental health crisis and when it’s ‘bad behavior’ [requiring a law enforcement response]…. many law enforcement officers have told us through the years that when they see a person in that level of distress, they believe it’s ‘bad behavior’ [requiring a law enforcement response], particularly before they’ve had the training.”
- In Wayne County, “Jail Bookings [Down] By 52%” Since Mental Health Response Started: “The 15,000 mental health calls to 911 [received in a year] — there’s a mental health clinician embedded in 911 now that is fielding those calls, there’s interventions with the behavioral health unit at the probate court, there’s programs at the level of the jail, [and] for law enforcement to recognize behavioral health… Over the past decade, [we’ve been] working to change how we respond to things like mental health crises in Wayne County. It’s having an impact….”