Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Human Rights and Science

The Intersection of Public Health and Deflection: A New Indicator

Nikki G Delatolas — 2025-04-22

This article is an effort to open conversation on the philosophical intersection of public health and the criminal justice system as it relates to the Deflection Program’s measured indicators and impact on the community. The discussion includes an overview of the Marathon County, Wisconsin’s Deflection Program located within the District Attorney’s Office, relating philosophical contexts within the intersection, and a new proposed indicator of tracking recovery attempts for program evaluation as a supplement to the recidivism indicator.

Preventing Substance Use-Related Crime through Deflection

Daphne Baille — 2025-04-22

This article discusses deflection as a crime prevention strategy that focuses predominantly on preventing offenses related to substance use and co-occurring disorders. Applying decades of lessons learned in crime prevention, public health, community policing, and harm reduction, deflection brings together law enforcement and community partners to improve community safety and advance public health.

Strategies for Improving Police Response Models involving Opioid Overdoses and Overdose Deaths

Thomas B. Sease — 2025-04-22

Deflection programs have emerged as a promising approach to addressing the opioid overdose crisis, offering an innovative alternative to traditional criminal justice approaches. A variety of collaborative initiatives bring together law enforcement, first responders, and behavioral health agencies to redirect individuals away from the criminal-legal system and toward supportive community-based services. Implemented across the United States, these programs have shown significant positive outcomes, including reduced overdose deaths, fewer police encounters, and lower incarceration rates. As the deflection field continues to evolve, the next generation of deflection initiatives are positioned to expand their community impact by focusing on four critical areas of intervention: 1) supporting impacted children and families, 2) implementing trauma-informed practices, 3) addressing law enforcement well-being, and 4) enhancing community engagement. By emphasizing these interconnected components, deflection programs have the potential to significantly improve participant engagement, transform police-community relationships, and ultimately achieve better long-term behavioral health outcomes.

Keywords: Law Enforcement, Opioid Overdose, Community Linkage, Trauma, Impact on Children, Officer Well-being, Deflection, Pre-Arrest Diversion, Co-responder

What It Takes: Implementation and Expansion of a Quick Response Team

Sarah Manchak — 2025-04-22

Quick Response Teams (QRTs) have proliferated across the United States in response to the opioid overdose crisis. One of the first county-wide QRTs in the nation, the Hamilton County, Ohio QRT (HC-QRT), has been heralded as a model QRT, and its members have helped to train and teach other jurisdictions wishing to implement similar programs. This is the first of several studies of this QRT’s operations. The present study describes and quantifies the HC-QRTs activities and outputs as it has expanded over a seven-year period.

Veterans Health Administration Deflection Programming: A Qualitative Study of Providers and Police Officers

Lance Washington — 2025-04-22

Objective: Deflection program staff intervene with a person before or during a crisis or a community encounter where service needs are present. Staff connect this person with needed healthcare or psychosocial services and prevent their arrest or further interaction with the criminal legal system. As deflection programs develop and expand, there are opportunities to connect veterans in crisis or with other service needs to healthcare. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) supported and trained staff to create and expand deflection partnerships to serve veterans who are at risk for adverse legal or clinical outcomes. This study examined VHA professionals’ experiences with and recommendations for deflection partnerships.

Methods: Virtual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 VHA staff from May to June 2024. The primary focus of the interviews was to examine key partners, community-based resources, barriers to successful deflection partnerships, data tracking, and future quality improvement. Transcripts were coded using a priori and emergent codes and analyzed using the framework method.

Results: Most participants were female (56%), white (87%), with a master’s degree (94%), and 10 or more years of employment within VHA (69%). Four themes were identified: (1) deflection partnership characteristics, (2) need for Peer Specialists, (3) VHA and community-based resources and barriers, and (4) data tracking.

Conclusion: Results indicated that VHA staff are highly collaborative, but a lack of buy-in, few Peer Specialists dedicated to legal-involved services for veterans, barriers in VHA-community partnerships, and underutilization of data tracking limited successful deflection partnerships. Recommendations include hiring Peer Specialists dedicated to legal-involved veterans services and improving data tracking to facilitate effective deflection.

Deflection Encounters: Motivational Interviewing and Maximal Minutes

Michael Clark — 2025-04-22

This article is a practice review for the application of Motivational Interviewing (MI) to be applied to First Responder Deflection programming. Deflection relies on law enforcement and a host of community responders to be the referral source to community-based drug treatment and mental health services prior to any potential crises or arrest. Deflection differs from the common term of diversion as it deflects those needing substance use or mental health services without an arrest and legal system processing. There is a short review of the innovative structure that Deflection has constructed and a brief examination of the delivery framework of this new approach. With over 1,000 sites of Deflection currently in operation, this practice review calls for the field to place more focus on what treatment mechanics are to be used. Specifically, the implementation and deployment of Motivational Interviewing is discussed by reviewing seven benefits. A question is asked of the field: Could MI be endowed as a best practice for deflection? A listing of several of these benefits include; Mi employs nonadversarial methods which syncs with the voluntary nature of Deflection along with the research that if MI is added to an existing evidence-based practice, MI increases the outcomes for both practices. Other benefits include MI doubles its effect size when used with minority populations; has effective resistance-lowering techniques; and MI is helpful when used with person’s challenged by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and co-occurring conditions. Readers are asked to consider that the leading service that deflection programs link to is substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and medication assisted treatment (MAT). With that leading service connection, it is explained that MI can increase a client’s sense of importance to choose, comply, and continue with the use of MAT. This review moved further to report MI has been called an “effective tool” for use within short time frames and is notable for creating “potent opportunities” within first contacts. The term “maximal minutes” is coined in this review to speak to how the use of MI can help first meetings with clients that occur within compressed time frames.

Deflection Directions: Philosophies and Concepts Blending Public Health, Public Safety and Communities

Tralonda Triplett — 2025-04-22

Inclusion of classical and contemporary public health principles in public safety philosophies of Deflection are essential in design and implementation of resulting programming. By examining learned lessons from public health theories, and engaging communities, both in recovery and not, Deflection can become a sustainable contribution of both safety and health to communities-at-large. This paper provides directives to philosophical foundations for Deflection that can assist with subsequent developments of programs moving forward that are responsive to the cultural needs of communities in need of mental health, and substance use disorder treatment diversion, as well as the public safety professionals that dispense such services. In addition, the paper explains how public safety systems-based engagement with communities, both those who are currently in recovery from these conditions, and those health is harmed vicariously by lacks of safety, can lead to customized, community levels of compassion and reductions of stigma for communities living with these conditions. In short, effective Deflection philosophies and customized frameworks can foster not only community-level safety but also health promotion and preventive capital.