Enhancing access to child and youth mental health services through an improved referral pathway from police officers

Tina Benevides

Ron Hoffman

Roxana Vernescu

Impact

  • Close to 50 police officers in the North Bay region were trained in this process. Through the successful completion of the project, they were able to improve their knowledge and attitudes towards mental health in children and youth.

  • The enhanced decision-support tools which are a part of the new software-based intervention facilitated better access to community-based mental health services for children/youth who interacted with the police.

  • The project served as a foundation for a Crisis Services Systems redesign, aiming to further improve crisis response and mental health support for children and youth in the community and eventually.

  • In 2021, the project received national spotlight as it became an exclusive article on Canada’s national public broadcaster Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/sudbury-north-bay-police-mental-health-children-and-youth-1.6221530).

  • Ontario

  • Grant

  • Nipissing University

  • Hands TheFamilyHelpNetwork.ca

  • Knowledge Institute on Child and Youth Mental Health and Addictions

  • 2021-2022

  • Children and Youth Mental Health

  • Children (aged 1-12), Youth (aged 13-18), Police Officers

About the Project

The researchers aimed to improve interactions between police officers and children and youth with mental health issues and/or crises. The primary objective was to increase police officers' awareness and skills in identifying common mental health conditions in children and youth through enhanced training. The secondary objective of this project was to develop varied tools and resources for front-line police officers and crisis intervention teams to help them with child and youth mental health crises guidelines and a decision-support and crisis management software (HealthIM).

Methodology

The study recruited 253 participants who had contact with the police and they used two sets of measurements before and after they used the software. This helped the researchers determine if police officers' thoughts and feelings about children and youth’s mental health improved. During the study, questionnaires were also sent to participants to understand any mental health issues they were experiencing and to measure their overall mental well-being. At the conclusion of the study, frontline police officers and employees of mental health agencies were questioned on their confidence and ability of identifying mental illness in children and youth.

Findings

  • The study found that the proportion of police officers who had increased awareness and had improved abilities to identify mental health challenges and “abnormal thought processes” in children/youth increased from 23.5% to 58.8% of the total participants.

  • Through this study, many police officers and employees of mental health agencies were able to improve their working relationships with emergency department staff.

  • Officers reported increased confidence in their ability to support children/youth with mental health issues, leading to a higher percentage of referrals to community mental health agencies for children/youth compared to adults.

  • Lastly, the project also highlighted the need for how mental health crises should be handled. . As a result, a major finding was to develop better responses to crises through better systems and increased interagency collaboration.

Project Outreach

In Ontario, this project trained 50 police officers to handle youth mental health issues and created software for better referrals to mental health services. Officers improved at recognizing these challenges, leading to more referrals. It gained national attention through a CBC article and remained within Ontario without expansion.

Resources Created

  • 4 presentations

  • Publications in progress