Experiences of police apprehension for psychosocial disability: a co-designed investigation

Police callouts for psychosocial distress occur every 12 minutes, and more than 6% of all people taken to hospital for psychosocial distress are taken by police, by force. The experience can be disabling and traumatic, yet there are limited alternative responses to psychosocial distress.

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This project brought together a team from RMIT University and VMIAC to explore and document the experiences of people who have been taken by police to mental health services.

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Project aims:

1. To document, explore and amplify the voices of people who experience or are labelled with psychosocial  disability who have experienced police apprehension under mental health legislation.

2. Use this information to enhance ongoing policy reform, resulting in less disabling crisis responses.

3. To develop a human rights-based training resource for guiding police interactions with people experiencing psychosocial distress.