In December 2020, the Empowerment Council Executive Director published an article on the working relationship of a service user organisation with police and mental health services. A digital version of this article originally published in the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing can be accessed from the Wiley Online Library. The Library provides online access for a fee or free to members. Soon there will be broader access to the article (or it can be requested from the author). Many schools across Canada have membership through the Canadian Access Federation.
What is known?
- Police and mental health services benefit from meaningful service user engagement.
- Partnerships with organizations that are representative of community members—such as service users—are the most empowering model of collaboration.
What this paper adds?
- Describes how a service user organization can effectively advocate for change in the policing and mental health systems through both mutual collaboration and external pressure.
Implications for practice?
- Methods of creating change that can save lives through partnerships with service user organizations can be applied by service user organizations, police and mental health services.
- The methods described have the potential to reduce deaths and injury as a result of police action or mental healthcare practices