Compulsory police admissions from an urban and a rural catchment area with admission rates higher than the national average were studied. A comparison was made with a group of patients admitted involuntarily following assessment by a doctor and a social worker. Police admissions differed in several ways from the comparison group and it is suggested that they were less likely to benefit from hospitalization. Taking into account the likelihood of an increase in the number of contacts between the police and the mentally ill, a number of alterations in the assessment procedure are suggested.
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