title: Collaboration in crisis: Carer perspectives on police and mental health professional's responses to mental health crises.
abstract: For many situations involving a mental health crisis, carers (e.g. family or friends) are present and either attempt to help the person overcome the crisis or request assistance from professional services (e.g. mental health or police). Comparatively, little research has explored how carers experience the crisis, the professional response and how the nature of the response, in turn, impacts carers. The current study was conducted to explore these issues during individual interviews with nine carers who had previous contact with police and mental health services during a crisis response. Collected data described the definition and perceived impact of a mental health crisis for carers, how carers had experienced a crisis response from police and mental health services, and how the professional response had impacted on carers. Of importance was the finding that carers were often themselves traumatized by witnessing or being involved in the crisis, however, were rarely offered direct education or support to help them cope or prevent future crises. A number of carers described a reluctance to request assistance from professional services due to previous poor experiences. This highlighted the importance of implementing strategies to deliver more timely, respectful, specialist and collaborative crisis responses to improve carer and consumer outcomes.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brennan
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.|School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Narelle
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The Alfred and Central Clinical School Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Violeta
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The Alfred and Central Clinical School Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.|Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, Arts and Design, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Yitzchak
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hollander
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Kara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Boscarato
authors.affiliation: Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, The Alfred and Central Clinical School Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. stuart.lee@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003419:Crisis Intervention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards; D016495:Police / Q000592:standards
keywords: carer; carer burden; mental health crisis; mental health services; police