A Novel Police-Mental Health Linkage System to Promote Pre-Booking Jail Diversion

心理健康和刑事司法系统之间的广泛分歧导致许多人 严重的精神疾病被逮捕和监禁时，心理健康治疗将更多 适当对这些人的“刑事定罪”是美国各地广泛记录的问题。 顺序拦截模型是刑事司法中最有效的干预点， 防止不必要的逮捕和监禁的制度是一个官员和一个 患有严重精神疾病的人，这是参与刑事司法的第一步。R34项目 推行一项新的警队与精神健康联系制度的试验计划，并测试其可行性， 最终用户的接受度。我们新的联动系统将包括三个步骤。首先，一些人 有严重的精神疾病和刑事司法参与的历史将给予特别同意，允许 简要披露他们的精神健康状况，作为该州刑事司法登记的一部分 信息系统第二，当官员将已登记参与者的姓名或标识符作为 在遭遇过程中进行例行背景调查时，警官会收到一条电子信息， 有特殊的心理健康考虑，并致电1-800号码了解更多信息，将连接到 我们的联系专家最后，联系专家，谁将是一个认证的心理健康提供者，将协助 通过与警官一起思考观察到的行为和潜在的解决方案来指导警官。我们预期 在某些情况下，如果逮捕不是强制性的，那么官员将选择将其转交或运送到精神病院。 卫生服务，而不是作出逮捕，因为我们的直接提供的信息，低- 成本制度三个首要目标将指导这一试点干预项目。在目标A中，我们将实施 示范警察-心理健康联系系统，以便实施程序， 通过与三个主要合作伙伴（格鲁吉亚办事处）合作， 调查组（负责维护格鲁吉亚的刑事司法数据库/信息系统）、萨凡纳- 查塔姆大都会警察局和当地社区心理健康机构，网关行为 保健服务在目标B中，我们将评估所有主要利益相关者群体对通过重点关注可接受性的看法 与病人、巡警、警察局领导和心理健康服务计划一起进行的小组 管理者在目标C中，我们将证明可行性并估计效应量和其他参数，以准备 进行更大规模的研究将在100名患有严重精神疾病和 刑事司法史他们在1年干预期间的被捕人数将与之前的人数进行比较。 我们将评估有多少电话导致逮捕与精神卫生服务联系。审查 联系系统是如何工作的，以及它如何影响决策，我们还将进行个人 与使用该系统的官员以及接听他们电话的联系专家进行了访谈。

The widespread division between mental health and criminal justice systems leads to many persons with serious mental illnesses being arrested and incarcerated when mental health treatment would be more appropriate. The "criminalization" of such individuals is an extensively documented problem across the U.S. As illustrated by the Sequential Intercept Model, the most effective point of intervention within the criminal justice system to prevent unnecessary arrest and incarceration is the initial encounter between an officer and a person with a serious mental illness, which is the first step in criminal justice involvement. This R34 project seeks to implement a trial of a new police-mental health linkage system and to test its feasibility and acceptability among end-users. Our new linkage system will consist of three steps. First, some individuals who have a serious mental illness and a history of criminal justice involvement will give special consent to allow a brief disclosure of their mental health status to be included as part of a registry in the state's criminal justice information system. Second, when an officer runs an enrolled participant's name or identifiers as part of a routine background check during an encounter, the officer will receive an electronic message that the person has special mental health considerations, and to call a 1-800 number for more information that will connect to our Linkage Specialist. Lastly, the Linkage Specialist, who will be a certified mental health provider, will assist the officer by thinking through observed behaviors and potential resolutions with the officer. We expect that in some cases where an arrest is not obligatory, the officer will then choose to refer to or transport to mental health services instead of making an arrest because of the information provided by our straight-forward, low- cost system. Three overarching aims will guide this pilot intervention project. In Aim A, we will implement a demonstration of the police-mental health linkage system in order to operationalize procedures and develop the protocol manual (for a larger study) through collaboration with three key partners, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (which maintains Georgia's criminal justice database/information system), the Savannah- Chatham Metropolitan Police Department, and the local community mental health agency, Gateway Behavioral Health Services. In Aim B, we will assess all key stakeholder groups' perceptions of acceptability through focus groups conducted with patients, patrol officers, police department leaders, and mental health services program managers. In Aim C, we will demonstrate feasibility and estimate effect size and other parameters to prepare for a larger-scale study. Feasibility will be examined among 100 participants with a serious mental illness and a criminal justice history. Their number of arrests during the 1-year intervention will be compared to the prior year, and we will assess the how many calls result in arrest versus mental health service linkage. To examine how the linkage system worked and the ways it impacts decision-making, we will also conduct individual interviews with officers who make use of the system, and the Linkage Specialists who take their calls.