Police work with people with mental illnesses in many contexts—in crisis situations, when they are victims of crime, when they are suicidal, when they are in need of practical social support, to monitor their general well-being, when they commit crimes, when they need to be taken to hospital for assessments. The overriding goal of this website and the related activities is to help ensure that people who are living with mental illnesses are not “criminalized” inappropriately but rather are assisted in living productively and successfully in their community, recognizing that police services have a key role in attaining this goal. This may mean that people with mental illnesses are directed by poice toward the system which is most appropriate for them in their circumstances. It may be that this means entry into the criminal justice system if indeed a crime has been committed—but equally, it may mean that they are directed to the mental health system, or—if it is their choice and they do not represent a risk to themselves or others—no system at all. Obvious as this goal may be, in recent years it has often fallen to police organizations to take the lead role in assisting people with mental illnesses to access services if they choose to do so. Lack of easily accessible community mental health services combined with the comfortable public expectation that the police fix all things means that calls to assist a person with a mental illness who appears to be in distress or unwell will often go to the police.

A secondary goal is to ensure that both the police and mental health resources dedicated to this type of work are used efficiently and effectively. Many police services are dedicating significant resources to responding to calls involving mentally ill persons. Is this a reasonable and effective use of resources? Would these issues best be handled in some other fashion?

Issues of concern include:

• Training for police in understanding mental illness including psychosis, mood disorders and dementia
  
  
• Effective liaison models: what’s out there and what could there be?
  
  
• Training for mental health professionals related to working with the criminal justice system
  
  
• Partnerships between correctional facilities, mental health facilities and the police
  
  
• Research and data collection mechanisms to support the development of “best practices”
  
  
• Development of policies and guidelines to foster positive and constructive relationships between police organizations and mental health services
  
  
• Effective mental health legislation