@article{ref1,
title="Police encounters in child and youth mental health: could stigma informed crisis intervention training (CIT) for parents help?",
journal="Journal of social work practice",
year="2015",
author="Liegghio, Maria and Jaswal, Prableen",
volume="29",
number="3",
pages="301-319",
abstract="Recently in Canada the issue of police encounters among persons living with a mental health issue has received considerable public attention; however, the focus has been primarily on the experiences of adults and not of children and youth. In this paper, we explore police encounters in child and youth mental health by presenting the outcomes of 14 qualitative interviews conducted with seven caregivers and seven siblings and two focus groups conducted with eight caregivers about their experiences of having a child/sibling, 13-21 years old, living with a mental health issue. There were two main themes identified: (1) the need for police support to deescalate a high conflict situation involving a distressed child/sibling, and (2) the stigmatisation and criminalisation of the distressed child, parents and families. Based on these outcomes, a model of support is proposed whereby parents would be provided with crisis intervention training informed by an understanding of the stigma of mental illness as a structural condition of their personal experiences. Such training could provide caregivers with support for identifying and responding to crisis and for developing safety plans that may or may not involve police, but could minimise and/or divert the need for their involvement. KW: siblings; parents; stigma of mental illness; police; child and youth mental health; crisis intervention training; policing; caregivers; juvenile justice<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0265-0533",
doi="10.1080/02650533.2015.1050654",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2015.1050654"
}