Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

mental crisis and whose behaviour elicits a call to the police suffer from a mental illness
or mental disturbance. The terms are, in that sense, under-inclusive. The concept of a
mental disability connotes a permanent condition, which may not be accurate.
Moreover, some stakeholders within the mental health community prefer not to use
terms like “mental illness” because the terms are viewed as incorporating an inherent
assumption that there is a biological or medical basis for human behaviour that may be
caused by other factors.
32. Similar concerns have been expressed about terms like “consumer survivor”. A
consumer survivor is generally understood as a person who has consumed the services
or resources of the mental health system, and who has survived their own mental
condition, or the mental health system itself (or both). Again, the term is underinclusive
because not all persons who are experiencing a mental or emotional crisis have
had prior contact with the mental health system. The term is also not universally
accepted.
33. Our goal in this Review is to use terminology that is at the same time accurate,
descriptive and neutral. The terminology should evoke the least stigma and
stereotyping, and should be viewed as properly reflective of the dignity and humanity of
the persons being described. They are, after all, our brothers and sisters, our mothers
and fathers, our husbands and wives, our daughters and sons. They are not apart from
us. They are us.
34. I have elected to use the term “person in crisis” in this Report, to refer to those
whose behaviour brings them into contact with police either because of an apparent
need for urgent care within the mental health system, or because they are otherwise
experiencing a mental or emotional crisis involving behaviour that is sufficiently erratic,
threatening or dangerous that the police are called in order to protect the person or
those around them. The term “person in crisis” is not restricted to people with mental
illness. The term gives primacy to the person, and focuses on their experience (“crisis”)
in the specific moment that the police are involved, without drawing conclusions or
making assumptions about the specific reasons for that experience, or about their
mental or emotional condition before or after the incident.
35. The term “person in crisis” is one of the terms used by the TPS and by other
police agencies. The existence of a state of crisis is referenced in the definition of
“emotionally disturbed person” in the TPS procedure noted above, and is recognized in
the name “Mobile Crisis Intervention Team.” The TPS generally describes the role of the
MCIT program as being to assist people experiencing a mental health crisis. Similar
terminology is found in international policing standards documents such as the Model
Policy on Responding to Persons Affected by Mental Illness or in Crisis, prepared in
2014 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. 1 While I recognize that the
term “person in crisis” may be viewed as somewhat broad and inexact, it is no more so
than the term “emotionally disturbed person,” while at the same time in my view being
1
International Association of Chiefs of Police National Law Enforcement Policy Centre, Responding to Persons Affected by Mental
Illness or in Crisis: Concepts and Issues Paper (Alexandria, VG: International Association of Chiefs of Police National Law
Enforcement Policy Centre, January 2014).
Police Encounters With People in Crisis |49