Link – Indianapolis initiative aims to avoid jailing the mentally ill
This is a really great idea –
“Indianapolis wanted a better way to combat drug addiction and mental illness. So the city created its first Mobile Crisis Assistance Teams, consisting of a police officer, paramedic and clinician, to connect offenders to services.”
But, as the article points out, the challenge is making sure those services exist and are available. It’s not a challenge that we haven’t seen everywhere, and it’s not one with an easy solution either. Mental Health and addiction services are lacking in a huge way across the US and other countries as well. Until we solve that, these are only patchwork measures.
Still, this beats locking up people in jail when they’re having a mental health crisis, so I give Indianapolis credit for that!
