HEALTH & POLICING

When Critical Resistance members interviewed people for the Oakland Power Projects (OPP), people repeatedly expressed the desire to disconnect health crises and healing from police response. We heard this in the stories we collected in terms of sites of healthcare being places people interacted with law enforcement and interactions where law enforcement harmed people, in terms of resources that people needed without police involvement, and in terms of ways that people practiced self-determination and solved situations while minimizing police contact.

Check out the Anti-Policing Health Toolkit! This is a compilation of resources created by health workers for the OPP Know Your Options workshops. The intended audience is everyday people, as well as healthcare workers. Download the PDF here. Also viewable at bottom.

BACKGROUND

After doing numerous community interviews in which healthcare emerged as a routine site of police contact (read the background report here). CR recruited a range of health experts–EMTs, free clinic workers, emergency room doctors, nurses, acupuncturists and herbalists—and convened a number of meetings to create an Anti-policing Healthworkers Cohort that would empower communities to know how to access healthcare while minimizing interactions with law enforcement.

In the fall of 2016, the Anti-policing Healthworkers cohort designed three engaging “Know Your Options” workshops that empower people to deescalate emergency situations and reduce engagement with cops when seeking healthcare.

“Know Your Options” Workshop Topics include:

Acute Emergencies
Behavioral Health
Opioid Overdose Prevention

Want to know more?

Check out the full report on our process and findings here.
Read more about our workshops and the work of the Anti-Policing Healthworkers Cohort here.
Learn more about how policing and health are connected here.

Would you or your organization like to host a workshop for your community, your membership, your colleagues? Sign up for one of the “Know Your Options” workshops here.

Read the report on the creation of this cohort. PDF here.

Check out the Anti-Policing Health Toolkit! This is a compilation of resources created by health workers for the Know Your Options workshops. The intended audience is everyday people, as well as healthcare workers. Download the PDF here.