Responding to Acute Mental Health Crises in Black Youth: Is It Safe to Call 911?

Abstract

Mental health professionals routinely advise the public to call 911 in case of an acute mental health crisis to access emergent care and ensure safety. Although there is no national database collection process, available data shows that individuals experiencing an acute mental health crisis and Black youth are both at a significantly elevated risk of being harmed or killed by law enforcement during any encounter. This brief analytic essay explores whether advising the public to call 911 is truly the best practice recommendation for Black youth in a mental health crisis. An alternative to the traditional law enforcement response is a mobile unarmed crisis response program. The authors describe successful existing programs and advocate for more widespread adoption of such teams, which likely would provide safer, cost-effective, evidence-based alternatives during acute mental health crises.