Brookings January 6, 2022
Too often, the systems that respond to people who are experiencing a behavioral health crisis result in a range of poor health outcomes, including mortality. They also involve people with the criminal justice system unnecessarily. Historically, behavioral health crises, which are emergencies that face people with mental health or substance use issues, have been responded to in a fragmented manner, with default reliance on law enforcement, hospitals, and jails.
Available data on the impact of these response systems on people with mental health conditions and people of color is alarming. The Washington Post’s database of police shootings and associated deaths recorded 6,800 police shootings since 2015. Twenty-three percent of police shootings and one quarter of...
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