We hear plenty about how emergency calls involving people in mental health crisis often end up handled by police. Which means people who need treatment often end up in jail instead.
The issue starts earlier in the process of seeking emergency help, reports the Pew Charitable Trusts. A recent Pew study focuses on the 911 systems and dispatchers who take the calls about people in mental health crisis.
For one thing, the examination found that there's not a lot of information available across the thousands of 911 systems in the country. And the responses to Pew's questions indicate that many dispatchers are not trained in handling a behavioral health crisis.
Tiffany Russell, Mental Health and Justice Partnerships Project Director, visits with further details of the findings.