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Q&A
Council member probes differences between police-initiated and clinician-initiated involuntary transports
1:48:53
·
5 min
Council Member Tiffany Cabán questions DOHMH representatives about the differences between police-initiated and clinician-initiated involuntary transports, focusing on data collection, outcomes, and use of force rates.
- Data shows a significant disparity: 7,060 police-initiated involuntary transports vs. 661 clinician-initiated in 2024.
- DOHMH clarifies they don't have data on police-initiated removals, as they're not involved in those actions.
- For clinician-initiated removals (via mobile crisis teams), only about 3% of 17,000+ referrals result in involuntary removal.
- Of those transported involuntarily by clinicians, about 75% are subsequently admitted to inpatient care.
- Cabán emphasizes the importance of this data in understanding the outcomes of different intervention approaches.
Tiffany Cabán
1:48:53
Okay.
1:48:54
So not so to to be clear, not an an increase.
1:48:57
Then I just my last few seconds, I wanna ask about involuntary transports again, and I'm gonna be referencing data that's included in the the this the transports annual report.
1:49:10
So it looks like the majority of involuntary transports are initiated by police.
1:49:15
The report shows that in 2024, '7 thousand and '60 of those involuntary transports were initiated by the police, and six sixty one of those involuntary transports were initiated by clinicians.
1:49:28
So my questions around this are like, are outcomes tracked for both types of involuntary transport?
1:49:34
Is there a difference aspects of the interaction?
1:49:37
What kinds of data is being kept beyond just that basic number?
1:49:41
So for example, I want to know in hospitalizations initiated by police versus clinician, what's the use of force rate?
1:49:48
Right?
1:49:48
Because it seems like one, more often than not, police are having these interactions that result in involuntary transports.
1:49:57
And the connection also point that I'm making here is that we know that the police are not the right responder to people who are in an acute mental health crisis.
1:50:06
And so when they show up, we often see not a de escalation, but an escalation.
1:50:11
And then that becomes the the the information that's used to involuntary transit.
1:50:17
Like, it is it creates conditions that didn't exist prior that ends up with an assessment that the person needs to be involuntarily transported.
1:50:27
So I want to know what kind of data is being kept, and I specifically want to know about the differences between use of force.
Michelle Morse
1:50:35
Thank you for that question council member.
1:50:37
I think you're referencing the report that was published by the Office of Community Mental Health that was released a few weeks ago.
1:50:45
That report doesn't fully reflect our DOHMH data, mostly because we have a data lag that made it not possible for some of our data to be included in that report.
1:50:58
So I don't have a full answer to some of the questions that you posed, but the Office of Community Mental Health I think would be a good place to start for some of those questions.
1:51:08
I do want to pass to Doctor.
1:51:09
Wright in case there's anything he'd
Jean Bubley
1:51:11
like to add.
1:51:12
And
Tiffany Cabán
1:51:13
to be clear, before you answer, I would love a commitment to find out what data is being kept.
1:51:19
I know you're saying that the community that that cohort is the place to start, but like you said that there is data that didn't make it into a report, and I wanna know what that data is.
Jean Wright
1:51:30
Thank you for your question.
1:51:32
So I can say that both involuntary and voluntary commit data is tracked and is kept, but to the commissioner's point, full brunt of that report really does come with the OCMH, and so we can get that information for you.
Tiffany Cabán
1:51:45
And do you know I mean, in this moment in time, do you know of any of the differences or are you tracking any of the differences in outcomes or experiences at the point of intervention between police initiated involuntary transports and clinician initiated involuntary transports because again we're seeing a crazy disparity in the numbers like the vast majority of these involuntary transports are being initiated by police not clinicians.
Jean Wright
1:52:12
Understood.
1:52:13
And so I will just say before I pass it to assistant commissioner Jamie Nichols that we are not involved in any of the police removals that you're talking about.
1:52:22
So I'll pass it to Jamie.
Jamie Neckles
1:52:24
Yeah, thanks.
1:52:24
So we would have no data because there's no clinician involved.
1:52:27
These are entirely police initiated actions.
1:52:31
For the removals of which we are a part, we have data.
1:52:35
So those are largely conducted by mobile crisis teams.
1:52:38
They got over 17,000 referrals in FY 'twenty four, and about three percent of those resulted in an involuntary removal.
1:52:49
So they are very infrequently assessing a person as needing emergency evaluation in a hospital and requiring involuntary transport.
1:53:00
And then of that, the small number, that three percent of the seventeen thousand plus mobile crisis referrals, those that are brought to the hospital, about seventy five percent of them are subsequently admitted onto an inpatient service.
1:53:16
It's a number Doctor.
1:53:16
Wright cited earlier, just demonstrating the accuracy of the clinician's assessment of people who would benefit from inpatient care.
Tiffany Cabán
1:53:23
Thank you very much.
1:53:24
I think that data, and I'm done, chairs, but I just want to close by saying that I think that data is incredibly important, especially when you put it together with some of the information and data we have gotten from the NYPD in these hearings.
1:53:36
And it tells a really, really, I think, clear story about who gets the better outcomes when dealing with folks and who is more often than not escalating an intervention to that last case scenario that you guys are saying in terms of what is best medical practice.
1:53:57
So thank you.