Ë¿¹Ïapp

, Assistant Professor

Department of African American and Africana Studies, Ë¿¹Ïapp

Fall 2024

, Professor

Graduate School of Education, Stanford University

October 28, 2024

Mental-Health First Responders Reduce Involuntary Psychiatric Detentions

Police officers typically serve as first responders to emergencies involving mental-health crises and are legally authorized to place individuals in involuntary psychiatric detentions. Concerns that these involuntary detentions are overutilized and can cause unnecessary harm have made the practice highly controversial. Co-responder programs are an emerging and responsive innovation that pairs mental-health professionals with police officers on qualified emergency calls for service. This pre-registered study provides leading evidence on the impact of a co-responder program using two distinct quasi-experimental designs. The results indicate that co-responders reduce the frequency of involuntary psychiatric detentions by 16 percent. These results also suggest that nearly half of this reduction is due to an improved continuum of care that reduces future calls for service.

Hosted by the Maryland Population Research Center. See for location and registration.

, Assistant Professor

College of Education and Human Development, George Mason University

Spring 2025

, Associate Professor

School of Education, University of California, Irvine

Spring 2025

, Director and Senior Researcher

Learning Policy Institute

Spring 2025