Heartland Alliance Educates Police Officers on Mental Health and Substance Use Issues

July 1, 2008

It's a familiar site to many urban dwellers. Amidst a public space—a park, a public train, a street corner—someone experiences a mental health crisis, perhaps threatening themselves and sometimes scaring bystanders.

Police, if called in to address the situation, may not know what to do. In fact, in many communities, police will take a traditional law-and-order approach to the situation. Fearing violence or other unknown actions, they may pursue criminal charges against the person. One common result is that people with serious mental illness end up languishing in jail, funneled into a criminal justice system that struggles to meet their needs.

The Chicago Police Department is trying to change that, with some help from Heartland Alliance and other community leaders. Frequently encountering people experiencing a complex intersection of poverty, substance use, and mental health issues, the City of Chicago two years ago began a pilot program. The program trained police officers in a few districts as a "crisis intervention team" so they were better equipped to respond to calls on people experiencing a mental health crisis.

The pilot effort, guided by support from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, was successful, leading to a more ambitious plan this year to train an additional and sizeable voluntary group of Chicago Police Department officers—1,000 total—by the end of 2008.

Enter Ed Stellon, director of resource and community development for Heartland Alliance's mental health and addictions services. Stellon brings to the Chicago Police Department Heartland Alliance's deep-seated expertise working with people in poverty who face other serious challenges, either mental illness or substance use or both.

Stellon trains officers on these issues, explaining the strong link between mental illness and substance use and specific techniques to work with this population and de-escalate crisis situations. He dispels the common perception that people with a mental illness are violent.

Multiple studies confirm that a majority of people with mental illness are not prone to violence, even when experiencing a crisis. Stellon lauds the Chicago Police Department for the effort, believing it brings an important human rights approach to its work.

"The Chicago Police Department has been out front nationally in trying to channel people with mental health needs into the mental health system instead of the criminal justice system," Stellon says. He adds that it's often only when people receive appropriate mental health care that their substance use issues get under control.

Many police officers express gratitude to Stellon, not only feeling more confident to manage crisis situations but also empowered to help this struggling population get much-needed treatment and embark on a path towards stability.

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