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Community Mental Health Journal, Vol. 41, No. 2, April 2005 ( 2005)DOI: 10.1007/s10597-005-2658-5Psychiatric Disposition of Patients
Brought in by Crisis InterventionTeam Police OfficersGordon Strauss, M.D.
Mark Glenn, M.D.
Padma Reddi, M.D.Irfan Afaq, M.D.Anna Podolskaya, M.D.
Tatyana Rybakova, M.D.
Osman Saeed, M.D.Vital Shah, M.D.Baljit Singh, M.D.
Andrew Skinner, M.D.
Rif S. El-Mallakh, M.D.ABSTRACT: Background: As part of an effort to improve police interactions with
mentally ill citizens, and improve mental health care delivery to subjects in acute
distress, the University of Louisville, in conjunction with the Louisville Metro Police,
established the crisis intervention team (CIT). CIT is composed of uniformed officers
who receive extensive training in crisis intervention and psychiatric issues and who are
preferentially called to investigate police calls that may involve a mentally ill individual. Methods: In an effort to determine the characteristics of the individuals brought
to the emergency psychiatric service (EPS) by CIT officers, a comparative (CIT vs.
mental inquest warrant [MIW, a citizen-initiated court order to bring someone for
psychiatric evaluation because of concerns regarding dangerousness] vs non-CIT/non-
MIW), descriptive evaluation was performed. Results: With the exception of a higher
rate of schizophrenic subjects brought in by CIT (43.0% vs. 22.1%, non-CIT, P .002),
the demographics, diagnosis, and disposition of CIT-referred subjects were not different in any way from non-CIT patients. Subjects referred on MIWs were more likely to
be admitted to a psychiatric hospital than non-MIW patients (71.6% vs. 34.8%,
P < .0001), but CIT-referred hospitalization rates were not different from hospitalization rates of self-referred subjects (20.7% vs. 33.3%, ns). Conclusions: CIT officers appear to do a good job at identifying patients in need of psychiatric care.Gordon Strauss, Mark Glenn, Padma Reddi, Irfan Afaq, Anna Podolskaya, Tatyana Rybakova,
Osman Saeed, Vital Shah, Baljit Singh, Andrew Skinner, and Rif S. El-Mallakh are affiliated with
the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Louisville School of
Medicine, Louisville, Kenfucky, USA.Address correspondence to Rif S. El-Mallakh, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentuckys USA. e-mail:
[email protected],223 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.224 Community Mental Health JournalKEY WORDS: crisis intervention team (CIT); emergency psychiatry; police.INTRODUCTIONMentally disturbed individuals frequently experience social difficulties
that may manifest as acute crises. Such episodes often command the
attention of law enforcement personnel....