Today, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), in partnership with Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, released “Advancing An Alternative to Police: Community-Based Services for Black People with Mental Illness,” a brief examining the incarceration, institutionalization, and police violence that Black people with mental illness, and all people with mental illness, face in law enforcement encounters when community-based mental health services are not available to respond to their needs.
“Advancing an Alternative to Police” notes that to protect Black people and others with mental illness, it is critical that we expand culturally competent, community-based mental health services. The services needed include clinical services, such as ACT, and mental health crisis services, but also non-clinical services, such as supportive housing, peer support, and supported employment. The brief outlines how developing an alternative to a law enforcement response requires action in three areas: re-directing requests for police intervention, developing the services needed for a non-police response, and maintaining on-going community based services.
The brief also recommends a list of actions that government authorities should take to better support Black people and others with mental illness, including the following. A full list of recommendations for local, state, and federal actors is included in the brief.
Congress should pass, and the President should sign legislation to:
Delhi Police has rejected allegations that Congress leader Deepender Hooda or any other politician has been placed under house arrest, describing the reports as misleading and baseless. The police...