Customer Reviews

Enhancing Police Response to Persons in Mental Health Crisis: Providing Strategies, Communication Techniques, and Crisis Intervention Preparation in Overcoming Institutional Challenges

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Jim Dozier, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education, reviews this book on the TCLEOSE website:

OVERVIEW --
Among the growing responsibilities of the Law Enforcement community has been the increase in calls responding to people with mental illness. These calls for assistance are being initiated from many sources. Calls range from shopkeepers requesting something be done about the unkempt individual standing in front of their business, to the fearful caller that their loved one is threatening to hurt themselves or others. Officers are being called to be an emergency responder, mediator, caseworker, counselor, referral authority and the list goes on.

How do we obtain the needed information and techniques needed to work with this important population? Well, if you have done any research at all in this area of expertise you will probably run across the name of Don Castellano-Hoyt, MA., MSW, LMSW-ACP. Mr. Castellano-Hoyt has had an extensive career in the field of Clinical Social Work, Mental Health Crisis Intervention as well as the development of a series of courses utilizing the topic of "improving police response to persons with mental illness". He has now written an impressive book, just arriving on the bookshelves, titled `Enhancing Police Response To Persons In Mental Health Crisis-providing strategies, communication techniques, and Crisis Intervention preparation in overcoming institutional challenges'. It is published by Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, LTD-Springfield, Ill.

The book is divided into three parts consisting of Clinical Issues, Mental Health from a Non-Clinical Perspective and The National Experience in Legal Terms. This is an excellent resource for Trainers, Mental Health Peace Officers as well as Clinicians working with clients with combined Mental Health and Legal Issues.

The book takes you thru the legal definition of Mental Illness, signs and symptoms, crisis and suicide intervention. It also explores a non-clinical perspective, discussing resources such as the DSM-IV, mental health codes and an index on state-by- state provisions. You are not only educated in the necessary background, terminology and communication skills needed for assisting the special needs populations, but are also given some interesting theories for the existence of mental illness as a whole. A definite "must have" for your resource library.

Book Review
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, December, 2005 edition, p.12
Enhancing Police Response to Persons in Mental Health Crisis: Providing Strategies, Communication Techniques, and Crisis Intervention Preparation in Overcoming Institutional Challenges by Don W. Castellano-Hoyt, Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Illinois, 2003.
This work is best suited for law enforcement administrators and field supervisors who want to understand persons with mental illness and their interactions with officers. For the last 15 to 20 years, articles have been written and lectures given about this topic but few books have appeared. Enhancing Police Response to Persons in Mental Health Crisis fills that void. The author presents a basic overview of major mental illnesses, a discussion of the interaction between persons with mental illness and police officers, and a frank account from a person personally familiar with both the mental health and criminal justice systems. Training over 7,000 police officers regarding persons with mental illness and serving as a negotiator in over 200 barricade situations, some involving SWAT, the author has become intimately familiar with crisis negotiation. The commander of the San Antonio Police Department's Crisis Negotiations Unit has told him many times during crisis negotiations that "you're the expert here. Tell me how much longer before this fellow will surrender." Don Castellano-Hoyt knows that in such situations, there is "no time for deferring the diagnosis or consulting a manual."
The book contains 16 chapters and 291 pages of practical information that may be read in its entirety or chapter by chapter. One chapter contains information that a police administrator could present in small amounts at daily roll calls. The author includes real-life scenarios in each chapter that come from his personal experience. These would make great discussion topics. The book has chapters regarding specific mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia (chapter 3) and depression (chapter 4). It also offers chapters about police officers executing mental health crisis interventions (chapter 5), suicide interventions (chapter 6), and emergency detention (chapter 8). Chapters concerning dealing with special populations (chapter 7) and communicating with persons with mental illness (chapter 9) provide practical techniques for field officers. Chapter 10 includes a discussion of psychiatric diagnoses and the manual used to make them. The end of the book contains a list of each state and the District of Columbia covering statutes defining mental illness, nonpeace officer detention, and provisions for emergency detention. This book is concise, practical, easy to read, and written by someone knowledgeable about law enforcement officers and persons with mental illness. The author comes across as interested in solving real-life problems. He also is concerned for both officers and mental health consumers, which is refreshing and gives the book integrity. It is this integrity that will cause the reader to want to complete Don Castellano-Hoyt's book and refer to it in the future.
Reviewed by
Dr. Daniel W. Phillips
Assistant professor of
sociology and criminology
Lindsey Wilson College
Columbia, Kentucky