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Acute Service Delivery in a Police-Mental Health Program for Children Exposed to Violence and Trauma

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Abstract

The Child Development Community Policing Program represents a national model of community-based collaboration between police and mental health professionals for violence-exposed and traumatized children. Administrative data from clinical records of a 24-hour consultation service were examined through stepwise multivariate logistic regression to identify child and event characteristics associated with a direct, in-person response at the time of police contact. Of 2361 children, 809 (34.3%) received a direct, in-person response. Relative to Caucasian children, Hispanic youth were more likely to receive this form of response (OR = 1.36). An acute clinical response was more likely for incidents of gang involvement (OR = 8.12), accidents (OR = 5.21), felony assaults (OR = 2.97), property crimes (OR = 2.30), family violence (OR = 1.53) and psychiatric crises (OR = 1.29). Acute response was less likely when juvenile conduct problems (OR = 0.61), fires (OR = 0.59), child maltreatment (OR = 0.57), and domestic violence (OR = 0.44) were involved. Incidents that were more severe or involved a primary mental health component were related to utilization of intensive CDCP resources.

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Correspondence to Robert A. Murphy Ph.D..

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Murphy, R.A., Rosenheck, R.A., Berkowitz, S.J. et al. Acute Service Delivery in a Police-Mental Health Program for Children Exposed to Violence and Trauma. Psychiatr Q 76, 107–121 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-005-2334-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-005-2334-2

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