Principle #5: Stop calling police on people with unmet mental health or medical needs
SUBSECTIONS
Why
Invitation / Action
Read More
Reflection Questions
Reflect
Research
Practice
Imagine
Return to 13 Principles
Why
Law enforcement responses to unmet mental health needs often result in serious bodily harm or even death
Health care workers and de-escalators should not be involved in programs partnering with the police
People across the country are experimenting with non-police responses to mental health crises including hotlines and non-police outreach teams
Invitation / Action
Stop calling police on people with unmet mental health needs
Work with your networks and people who have relationships with the person in crisis to address their immediate needs (i.e. water, food, shelter, care, etc.)
Organize to implement a non-police mental health response in your area
Join Interrupting Criminalization’s Mental Health Practice Space if you/your organization is envisioning, designing, and implementing non-police mental health crisis response programs
Read More
Interrupting Criminalization’s ‘Non-Police Crisis Response Guide’
A Checklist for Assessing Mental Health Response Models - Interrupting Criminalization
Crisis Toolkit - Fireweed Collective
What Stops Us from Supporting Us - Project Lets
Common Mistakes we Make when Supporting Others & What to Do Differently - Project Lets
Anti-Policing Health Toolkit - Critical Resistance
SAGE Response to Psychosocial Crisis - Critical Resistance
Why not to call the police on trans people in crisis - Trans Lifeline
There Is No Police Exception to the Americans With Disabilities Act - Susan Mizner, ACLU Disability Rights Program
Reflection Questions
Reflect
What do you need when you are in crisis? What is helpful? What is not helpful? What kinds of people do you need around you to de-escalate a situation?
Discuss this article on why not to call law enforcement on trans people in crisis and this article on what happens when police are called to respond to mental health crises.
Research
Research the Mental Health Response in your City
Assess it using the IC Mental Health Response Models Checklist on p. 58:
Practice
Introduce yourselves to your neighbors, get their contact information, and share information for the non-police mental health crisis response if you have one in your city. Create a group texting/mailing list dedicated to mutual aid and to supporting people who are having a mental health crisis in your neighborhood instead of calling 9-11
Fill out ‘A Mutual Aid and Safety/Wellness Planning Workbook’ and ‘Mad Map’ to plan ahead and get the support you need when you are having a mental health crisis
Use the crisis toolkit offerings from the Fireweed Collective
Imagine
Listen to Junauda Petrus read her poem ‘Give the Police Departments to the Grandmothers’.
How do the grandmas handle people in crisis?
Read Cara Page’s Psalm for the Mismeasured and Unfit, a piece dedicated to the survival and reclamation of marginalized communities’ stories.
What kinds of prevention (housing, health care, etc.) and aftercare is needed to avert mental health and medical crises?