Comparison of Youth Referred to Psychiatric Emergency Services: Police Versus Other Sources

• NCJ Number: 194635
• Journal: Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Volume: 30 Issue: 1 Dated: 2002 Pages: 74-80
• Author(s): Mary E. Evans Ph.D.; Roger A. Boothroyd Ph.D.
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study compares the characteristics and living environments of 53 youths who were referred to psychiatric emergency services by police with a matched group of 159 youths who were referred to psychiatric emergency services by other sources.

Abstract

The authors of this study note that increasing numbers of youths are being seen at psychiatric emergency services. As such, increasing attention is being paid to such youths in an effort to understand the characteristics and circumstances leading to their referral for services. The authors of this study gathered data from two child and adolescent psychiatric emergency services located in Bronx, New York between November 1993 and December 1995. They compared data on 212 youths, 53 of whom were referred for psychiatric care by police while the remaining 159 were referred for care by other sources. The measurement device utilized in this study was the Screening Crisis among Children and Adolescents with Reported Emergencies (SSCARE). Logistic regression was used to analyze the data and the variables used controlled for differences in age, gender, race, previous psychiatric hospitalizations, involvement in special education, number of parents living at home, and enrollment in managed care. The findings suggest that those youths who were referred to psychiatric emergency services by police were more likely to have caregivers who were less actively involved in their children's treatment. These police referred youths also tended to experience more domestic violence in their homes, were more likely to have used illegal substances, and were considered more dangerous to themselves and others than youths who had been referred by other sources. In conclusion, the authors call for more varied research concerning children referred to psychiatric emergency services since relatively little is known about this growing population.