From conversion to coercion: the police role in medication compliance

This paper examines the role of the police in supporting community based mental health services for the chronically mentally ill in a mid-sized midwestern city. Cooperation between the police and mental health system, as reflected in training and procedural agreements for emergency evaluations and h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychiatric quarterly 1995-06, Vol.66 (2), p.163-184
Main Author: Meehan, A J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antipsychotic Agents - therapeutic use
Chronic Disease
Coercion
Community Mental Health
Community Mental Health Services - legislation & jurisprudence
Crisis Intervention
Deinstitutionalization - legislation & jurisprudence
Health Resources - legislation & jurisprudence
Humans
Interorganizational Relations
Medical Model
Medications
Patient Care Team - legislation & jurisprudence
Patient Compliance - psychology
Police
Psychotic Disorders - drug therapy
Psychotic Disorders - psychology
Social Control, Formal
Treatment Compliance
Treatment Refusal - legislation & jurisprudence
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Summary:This paper examines the role of the police in supporting community based mental health services for the chronically mentally ill in a mid-sized midwestern city. Cooperation between the police and mental health system, as reflected in training and procedural agreements for emergency evaluations and hospitalization, achieves the conversion of the police to a medical model view of mental illness which stresses the importance and effectiveness of medication compliance so that the police will act upon this belief in their handling of the mentally ill. However, police recognition of the limits of the medical model and organizational change impacts upon cooperative police practices. Police experience conflict over the assumed therapeutic goals of community treatment and the important gatekeeping function community mental health systems perform under deinstitutionalization. Erosion of the police belief in the effectiveness of community mental health, and the resulting change in practices, may provide an important, yet partial, counterbalance to the control exerted by the medical model. The availability of police authority to assure compliance, or in some cases to reinforce the consequences of non-compliance with medication, raises questions about police-mental health relationships that are too cooperative.
ISSN:0033-2720
1573-6709
DOI:10.1007/BF02238862