ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Forensic Psychiatry
This article is part of the Research TopicPathways to Mental Health Resilience in Emergency Personnel: Protective Strategies and Occupational ChallengesView all 22 articles
Who you Gonna Call? Examining police reports involving people with psychosis to improve front line management
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia
- 2Queensland Police Force, Mental Health Unit, Brisbane, Australia
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Abstract Background: In New South Wales (NSW), Australia, police respond to mental health related events every nine minutes, sometimes resulting in negative outcomes, including arrest, use of force, death. Methods: In this exploratory study, we manually analysed 100 "patient" narratives (i.e., narratives with the involvement type for the suspected individual set by police as "patient") to describe police encounters with individuals reported to have psychotic disorders in NSW from 2017 to 2021 to identify the reasons for police involvement, arrest circumstances, and outcomes. Results: Of 100 events, 59% involved males, 40% females, and one transgender patient. Most (60%) reported multiple mental illnesses, and 44% involving substance use and alcohol. Half (53%) occurred at the patient's residence, followed by public places (17%). Police were called by the patient (25%), or a family member/partner (24%). Common reasons included welfare concerns (22%) and domestic disputes (18%). Only 11% resulted in arrest, while 71% resulted in transport to hospital/mental health unit. More than half (55%) resulted in the patient being scheduled under the Mental Health Act. Use of force was minimal, reported in 5% of events. Conclusions: Our preliminary findings challenge the stereotype of "dangerous" mentally ill individuals, with most police encounters involving welfare outcomes. Interactions with police such as those examined here present an opportunity for mental health services diversion, and cross-sectoral collaboration to address community care gaps. This study underscores the role police play in managing those experiencing mental health crises and the need for police training to effectively manage these situations.
Keywords: Australia, Mental Health, Mental health crises, Police, psychosis
Received: 19 Oct 2025; Accepted: 15 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Karystianis, Stephenson, Taflan, Reutens, Heffernan and Butler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: George Karystianis
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