This resource was selected by SMI Adviser content partners and approved by the SMI Adviser clinical expert team for inclusion in the knowledge base.
Recently there has been an increased focus on diversion of individuals with mental illness to community services rather than incarceration. One part of this webinar will discuss this change in focus and ways systems have changed to accommodate diversion. In addition, while we have seen increased access to mental health services in prisons and jails, there are still times where problems occur including staff who do not know what to do when people bring their medicine, or what to do when the individual comes without the medicine and needs to obtain it, how to recognize negative side effects of medications, and how to ensure the provision of treatment and services. A second part of this webinar will focus on processes that police departments can have in place to address these problems, how advocates can be involved, and ways to improve the system.