This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Communities across the country are debating the role mobile crisis response programs can play in emergency response. These programs typically take calls from 911 dispatchers involving mental health, substance use, welfare checks and other situations that do not require a law enforcement response.
Until now, communities have lacked a consistent way to measure how much these unarmed teams, which focus on de-escalation, divert calls from police. University of Oregon researchers have developed a way to do that. In a study published in Science Advances, the researchers outline a way to measure how much demand these programs divert from police.
Using data from the long-running CAHOOTS program in Eugene, Oregon, they developed measures that showed the program's impact was substantially greater than some previous estimates suggested. Rori Rohlfs, an associate professor of data science; Claire Herbert, an associate professor of sociology; and Nathan Burton, a UO alum now pursuing a master's degree at Johns Hopkins University, developed three standardized measures: the Substitution Diversion Rate, Prevention-adjusted Diversion Rate and Overlapping-mandate Diversion Rate. Together, the measures give communities different ways to evaluate how mobile crisis programs affect demand for police services within their emergency response systems.
"Until now, there has been a lot of talk about programs' 'diversion rates' without a clear, consistent definition," Rohlfs said. "Our research defines what we mean by diversion and gives communities different ways to measure a program's impact depending on the question they are trying to answer." Simply comparing the number of calls handled by police and crisis responders can be misleading because the two services don't necessarily respond to the same kinds of calls. Programs also vary widely in their staffing, responsibilities and the types of calls they are equipped to handle.
The Substitution Diversion Rate measures mobile crisis program responses that directly replace police responses. The Prevention-adjusted Diversion Rate also accounts for reductions in police responses likely due to early intervention by the mobile crisis program. The Overlapping-mandate Diversion Rate looks specifically at calls that either police or the crisis program could handle.
Applying the new measures to CAHOOTS, the researchers estimate the program directly diverted 18% of calls that otherwise would have gone to Eugene police. When they accounted for calls that may have been prevented from entering the emergency response system because CAHOOTS was available, the estimated impact rose to 23%. CAHOOTS also handled nearly 50% of the calls that fell within the overlapping responsibilities of police and the crisis response program.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
