Crisis Intervention and Behavioral Health Sergeant Catherine Cummings Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Behavioral Health Unit Detective Lance Dardeen Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Behavioral Health Unit
Crisis Intervention and
Behavioral Health
Sergeant Catherine CummingsIndianapolis Metropolitan Police Department
Behavioral Health Unit
Detective Lance DardeenIndianapolis Metropolitan Police Department
Behavioral Health Unit
IMPD Behavioral Health Unit• Five officers assigned to five of the six service
districts
• Each partnered with a clinician from Eskenazi Health – Midtown
• Created to support social expectations of local policing – started working June 2016
• Not a grant funded program
• Roles- Follow ups, training, community education
Perfect Storms
•Trend of using jail and public safety to respond to mental health crisis
•Managed care, insurance changes payments
•Recession & state budgets•Aging institutions•Affordability of street drugs-opioids
Law Enforcement Interaction and
the Available Resources for
Response• Arrest
• Immediate Detention
• Understanding the crisis
• Reuben Engagement Center
• The role of specialty courts
• Tracking the numbers – How?
Statistics on Mental Illness and Law
Enforcement
• According to The Washington Post, United States Law Enforcement shot and killed 991 people – 254 (25.6%) displayed signs of mental illness (unknown definition) 737 displayed no signs or were listed as unknown (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings/)
• BHU use of force numbers
• Immediate Detentions with Criminal Charges
Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Training
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)www.nami.org/Get-Involved/Law-Enforcement-and-Mental-Health
The Human Side of Mental Illness
and Substance Addiction – Personal
Stories of BHU
• Lavonnie, 51, is a woman who is living with schizophrenia
• Pembroke, 60, is a man living with alcoholism
• Al, 53, is a man living with schizophrenia and TBI
• Desiree, 53, is a woman living with schizophrenia