Webinar: Law Enforcement, Social Work & Deflection

This webinar will provide a national overview and introduction to the newly emerging field of deflection and pre-arrest diversion, which sits at the intersection of law enforcement, behavioral health, and community. As the field grows, the demand for social workers, clinical staff, peers, and people in recovery, to do this work is expected to grow. Harkening back to the days of police and social workers working in the 1970's side-by-side on the streets, deflection is similarly developing now in response to the opioid epidemic, police encounters with people with mental illness, the high rate of U.S. incarceration, and the need to change the narrative on community-police relations.

Participants will be able to:

• Describe the “5 Deflection Pathways to Community,” how they maximize deflection opportunities and how they connect people with behavioral health issues to treatment, recovery support and community services
• Understand the critical role social work plays in service provision (intervention and prevention) and program development (political, community, and internal support) in starting and maintaining a deflection program
• State how the field of social work, working alongside law enforcement and in a community setting, best intersects with deflection to improve community behavioral health and wellbeing challenges faced by residents.