Policing 'Vancouver's Mental Health Crisis': A Critical Discourse Analysis
- PMID: 28496294
- PMCID: PMC5423726
- DOI: 10.1080/09581596.2015.1007923
Policing 'Vancouver's Mental Health Crisis': A Critical Discourse Analysis
Abstract
In Canada and other western nations there has been an unprecedented expansion of criminal justice systems and a well documented increase of contact between people with mental illness and the police. Canadian police, especially in Vancouver, British Columbia, have been increasingly at the forefront of discourse and regulation specific to mental health. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, this paper to explores this claim through a case study of four Vancouver Police Department (VPD) policy reports on "Vancouver's mental health crisis" from 2008-2013, which include recommendations for action. Analyzed is the VPD's role in framing issues of mental health in one urban space. This study is the first analysis to critically examine the VPD reports on mental health in Vancouver, B.C. The reports reproduce negative discourses about deinstitutionalization, mental illness and dangerousness that may contribute to further stigma and discrimination of persons with mental illness. Policing reports are widely drawn upon, thus critical analyses are particularly significant for policy makers and public health professionals in and outside of Canada.
Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis; Dangerousness; Institutionalization; Mental Health; Policing; Policy.
Similar articles
-
Involuntary psychiatric treatment and the erosion of consent: A critical discourse analysis of mental health legislation in British Columbia, Canada.Health (London). 2023 Nov;27(6):1076-1095. doi: 10.1177/13634593221096241. Epub 2022 May 9. Health (London). 2023. PMID: 35531879 Free PMC article.
-
Vancouver's Alcohol Knowledge Exchange: lessons learned from creating a peer-involved alcohol harm reduction strategy in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.Harm Reduct J. 2023 Jul 26;20(1):93. doi: 10.1186/s12954-023-00838-2. Harm Reduct J. 2023. PMID: 37495993 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Visual and narrative representations of mental health and addiction by law enforcement.Int J Drug Policy. 2015 Jul;26(7):636-44. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2015.04.007. Epub 2015 Apr 15. Int J Drug Policy. 2015. PMID: 25980943 Free PMC article.
-
The Cedar Project: impacts of policing among young Aboriginal people who use injection and non-injection drugs in British Columbia, Canada.Int J Drug Policy. 2013 Sep;24(5):449-59. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2013.04.009. Epub 2013 Jun 2. Int J Drug Policy. 2013. PMID: 23731672
-
The police and mental health.Psychiatr Serv. 2002 Oct;53(10):1266-71. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.53.10.1266. Psychiatr Serv. 2002. PMID: 12364674 Review.
Cited by
-
Examining Implementation of Crisis Centers on Police Officer Emergency Hold Petitions.Community Ment Health J. 2023 Aug;59(6):1150-1162. doi: 10.1007/s10597-023-01097-y. Epub 2023 Feb 15. Community Ment Health J. 2023. PMID: 36790536 Free PMC article.
-
Involuntary psychiatric treatment and the erosion of consent: A critical discourse analysis of mental health legislation in British Columbia, Canada.Health (London). 2023 Nov;27(6):1076-1095. doi: 10.1177/13634593221096241. Epub 2022 May 9. Health (London). 2023. PMID: 35531879 Free PMC article.
-
"People need them or else they're going to take fentanyl and die": A qualitative study examining the 'problem' of prescription opioid diversion during an overdose epidemic.Soc Sci Med. 2021 Jun;279:113986. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113986. Epub 2021 May 3. Soc Sci Med. 2021. PMID: 33971445 Free PMC article.
-
Going Nowhere: Ambivalence about Drug Treatment during an Overdose Public Health Emergency in Vancouver.Med Anthropol Q. 2021 Jun;35(2):209-225. doi: 10.1111/maq.12638. Epub 2021 Apr 18. Med Anthropol Q. 2021. PMID: 33866590 Free PMC article.
-
A pilot study exploring mental health consumers' experiences with the police.Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2018 Oct 9;26(2):235-251. doi: 10.1080/13218719.2018.1504240. eCollection 2019. Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2018. PMID: 31984075 Free PMC article.
References
-
- Anderson K. Vancouver’s Chinatown: Racial Discourse in Canada, 1875-1980. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press; 1990.
-
- Armaline W, Sanchez Vera, Correia M. “the biggest gang in Oakland’: re-thingking police legitimacy. Contemporary Justice Review. 2014;17(3):375–397.
-
- Bacchi C. Analysing policy: What’s the problem represented to be? French Forest, Australia: Pearson; 2009.
-
- Battersby L, Morrow M. Challenges in implementing recovery-based mental health care practices in psychiatric tertiary care. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health. 2012;31(2):103–117.
-
- Best J. Random Violence: How we Talk About New Crimes and New Victims. Berkeley: University of California Press; 1995.
Grants and funding
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Other Literature Sources