Acute service delivery in a police-mental health program for children exposed to violence and trauma.
The Child Development Community Policing Program represents a national model of community-based collaboration between police and mental health professionals for violence-exposed and traumatized children. Administrative data from clinical records of a 24-hour consultation service were examined through stepwise multivariate logistic regression to identify child and event characteristics associated with a direct, in-person response at the time of police contact. Of 2361 children, 809 (34.3%) received a direct, in-person response. Relative to Caucasian children, Hispanic youth were more likely to receive this form of response (OR = 1.36). An acute clinical response was more likely for incidents of gang involvement (OR = 8.12), accidents (OR = 5.21), felony assaults (OR = 2.97), property crimes (OR = 2.30), family violence (OR = 1.53) and psychiatric crises (OR = 1.29). Acute response was less likely when juvenile conduct problems (OR = 0.61), fires (OR = 0.59), child maltreatment (OR = 0.57), and domestic violence (OR = 0.44) were involved. Incidents that were more severe or involved a primary mental health component were related to utilization of intensive CDCP resources.
Murphy
Robert A
RA
Center for Child and Family Health, Durham, NC 27707, USA. robert.murphy@duke.edu
Rosenheck
Robert A
RA
Berkowitz
Steven J
SJ
Marans
Steven R
SR
D000293:Adolescent; D044383:Black People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003237:Connecticut; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003376:Counseling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003419:Crisis Intervention / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D016495:Police; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy; D014754:Violence / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001741:Black or African American