"Strange Bedfellows: Building Relationships between Psychiatric Emergency / Crisis Services and Law Enforcement"
John “Jack” Rozel, MD, MSL, DFAPA
Medical Director, resolve Crisis Services, UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital
Psychiatrist, UPMC Systemwide Threat Assessment & Response Team
Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Adjunct Professor of Law
Core Faculty, Center for Bioethics & Health Law
University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Rozel is the Medical Director at resolve Crisis Services and the immediate Past President of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry. He is also an associate professor of psychiatry and adjunct professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh. He has worked extensively in disaster response providing leadership and direct support for community members, health professionals, and first responders impacted by these events. During the COVID pandemic, he worked with a number of medical centers, professional organizations and government agencies to provide support and strategies for health professionals, first responders and communities dealing with the impact of the incident.
Objectives
The activity is designed to help the learner
- Recognize the spectrum of programs providing crisis and emergency psychiatric services
- Apply strategies for proactively engaging psychiatric emergency department leadership in collaborative efforts
- Identify cultural and systems differences between emergency mental health programs and law enforcement
Summary
When somebody is in crisis, when somebody needs help, they should be helped. And who comes to the door after a request for help matters. One of the most important partners any community law enforcement agency has is the local Psychiatric Emergency Services or Crisis Center. However, building and maintaining relationships with health systems can be challenging, and even the best collaborative relationships will face inevitable challenges. Nonetheless, a strong collaborative relationship can be a critical tool for both teams and systems. Tips for identifying opportunities, avoiding pitfalls, and rebuilding trust after conflict will be provided. An exploration of the future of response to behavioral emergencies and synergies between 988 and 911 systems will be offered.
This talk is sponsored by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. This educational activity received no commercial support.