Campus Location
Abilene Campus (Residential)
Date of Award
Spring 5-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Social Work
Degree Name
Master of Science
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Alan Lipps
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Malcolm Scott
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Stephanie Miller
Abstract
Law enforcement has historically been on the frontlines of the mental health crisis. This expected role is difficult as police officers are not trained as mental health professionals. Collaboration between police officers, mental health professionals, and mental health authorities have produced integral models to assist with the mental health crisis. Crisis intervention teams (CIT), mobile crisis units, and street triage models are highlighted to gain understanding of the components of these models. This study desires to examine a collaborative, recently implemented mental health deputy grant program aimed at diverting mentally ill individuals in crisis from contact with the criminal justice system and connecting individuals in crisis to appropriate treatment services. This exploratory, descriptive design allowed for data to be categorized from a log containing synopses of each encounter over an eight-month span. The relationship between variables of cross-tabulated, nominal data was analyzed. Results show that mental health deputies are diverting mentally ill individuals from contact with the criminal justice system, connecting them to emergent treatment services and long-term community services.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Murray, Melissa Kay, "Outcomes of Mental Health Crises when Mental Health Professionals Partner with Mental Health Deputies" (2019). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 135.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/135
Included in
Psychology Commons, Social Statistics Commons, Social Work Commons