How to Reduce Mental Health Crises by Improving Training and Education for Law Enforcement First Responders

This writer chose to focus her social issue on creating an improved 911 system staffed with trained mental health emergency workers who respond to mental health emergencies, and crisis calls concurrently with law enforcement officers. This method will help law enforcement officers ascertain the correct level of care for a person experiencing a mental health crisis. The same would be considered a prevention effort to reduce persons being revictimized by being arrested by uniformed police officers or providing appropriate mental health services at the time of crisis. There are advanced trained law enforcement officers competent to deal with behavioral health crises and are part of what is known as a Mental Health Support Team (MHST) in southern Arizona. In Pima County and the greater Tucson area of southern Arizona, law enforcement officers routinely respond to mental health crisis calls. Many law enforcement officers do not have adequate training to work through a trauma-informed lens when responding to mental health crises. Taking a trauma-informed approach includes responding with compassion, dignity, and empathy. The majority of law enforcement officers are overworked and focused on responding to crimes. Due to the high response to crimes, law enforcement officers take a person with a mental health crisis to jail instead of an appropriate crisis hospital (Balfour et al., n.d.). This project aims to prevent adverse experiences for persons with mental health crises who call 911 for assistance by ensuring community members experiencing a mental health crisis connect to the right level of care, which is the first defense line during the crisis