Abstract
Black individuals and their family members may be hesitant to enlist police assistance, even when symptoms necessitate it, due to the historic and ongoing mistrust of the police. Compared to people of other races and ethnicities, police are more likely to use force on Black individuals (Fryer, 2019; Edwards, Lee, & Esposito, 2019). Moreover, one in four fatal police encounters involve a person with SMI (Fuller, Lamb, Biasotti, & Snook, 2015). Using a sample of 233 Black adults in the United States, this study examined predictors of seeking (1) general psychological help, and (2) police assistance, (3) the impact of gravity/threat of behavior (i.e., life-threatening versus non-life-threatening) on seeking police assistance, and (4) potentially modifiable factors to improve comfort with general psychological services and (5) with EPS. Results of regression analyses supported the hypothesis that more experiences with racial/ethnic discrimination would be associated with more negative attitudes about seeking psychological help. Contrary to expectations, mental illness stigma and religious coping were not related to seeking psychological help. Regression analyses further supported the hypothesis that participants would be more likely to seek police assistance when they had a more favorable perception of the police. Contrary to expectations, greater mental illness stigma was related to a higher likelihood of seeking police assistance (the opposite of what was expected). Factors to potentially improve comfort with seeking psychological services (e.g., incorporating clients’ religious/spiritual identity) and emergency psychiatric services (e.g., including mental health professionals in responses) were also examined and results and implications are discussed.