Policing mental health: an exploratory study of crisis intervention teams and co-response teams in the Canadian context

Abstract

Due to an increase in interactions between the police and persons with mental illness (PMI), police services have begun deploying specialized mental health responses to more adequately address these calls. One of these responses is a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) that is comprised of officers who are specially trained on mental health; another is a co-response where an officer is paired with a mental health specialist. Currently, little is known about these responses within Canada, therefore, this thesis employs a mixed methodology in order to explore the use of these responses nationwide. The results indicate that most of the participating services have some form of specialized response, and that these responses experience many successes and challenges – the latter of which may prevent or limit any potential successes. Recommendations and a call for future research are made which may assist Canadian police services in mitigating these challenges.