A growing share of police work in Kerala today has little to do with crime in the traditional sense and everything to do with distress. Calls involving attempted suicide, severe depression, substance withdrawal, domestic breakdown, psychosis, dementia-related wandering, and emotional outbursts now occupy a significant portion of station time. These incidents are often recorded as “law and order” events because there is no better administrative category, not because they are criminal. This mismatch between problem and response has quietly created avoidable harm for citizens and unsustainable stress for the police.
Kerala’s social indicators make this challenge more acute than in many other states. The state has one of India’s highest suicide rates, cutting across age groups and showing worrying concentrations among youth, the elderly, and economically stressed households. Alcohol dependence, prescription drug misuse, and depression-linked family conflict have been repeatedly flagged by health surveys and court observations. During the COVID-19 period, helpline data and police records showed sharp spikes in mental health–related distress calls, many of which escalated simply because uniformed response was the only option available.
When the police arrive first at a mental health crisis, the outcome often depends less on procedure and more on chance: the temperament of the officer, the mood of the person in distress, the presence of family members, and the crowd environment. Even well-intentioned officers are trained primarily in command, control, and legal thresholds. In a psychological crisis, these tools can escalate fear rather than reduce it. International evidence shows that a significant percentage of custodial injuries and deaths globally occur during encounters that began as mental health emergencies, not criminal acts.
Mental health first-response units address this structural gap. The core idea is simple but transformative. When a call indicates a mental health crisis rather than a crime in progress, the first responders should be trained mental health professionals supported by police, not the other way around. Police remain essential for safety and authority, but they are positioned as backup, not default.
Such units would consist of mental health nurses, psychologists, social workers, and specially trained responders capable of rapid assessment, de-escalation, and referral. Their mandate would include suicide prevention, acute psychological episodes, substance withdrawal crises, and severe domestic distress where violence has not yet occurred. The objective is stabilization and safe handover to health or social services, not registration of cases.
Kerala already has the institutional pieces required for this shift. The state has a relatively strong public health system, widespread primary health centers, and experience in community-based health interventions. What is missing is integration at the response level. Today, police, health services, and social welfare often operate sequentially rather than simultaneously. Mental health first-response units collapse this delay, intervening at the moment when outcomes are most malleable.
Data strongly supports early intervention. Studies consistently show that timely, non-coercive response to mental health crises reduces repeat incidents, lowers hospitalization rates, and decreases long-term service burden. For the police, this translates into fewer repeat calls to the same households, fewer confrontations, and reduced risk of use-of-force situations. Over time, this also improves public perception of policing as humane rather than threatening.
There is also an internal benefit that is rarely discussed. Police officers are themselves exposed to high emotional stress, repeated trauma, and moral injury. Handling mental health crises without adequate training or support contributes to burnout and cynicism. A system that shares this burden with trained professionals protects officers as much as it protects citizens.
Critically, this model does not weaken law enforcement. On the contrary, it sharpens it. When police time is not consumed by issues better handled medically or socially, investigative capacity and preventive policing improve. Serious crime receives more attention. Trust improves, making cooperation easier when enforcement is genuinely required.
The risk of misuse or delay must be addressed honestly. Not every call can be perfectly categorized, and some mental health crises will still require immediate police intervention. This is why clear triage protocols, joint training, and co-location of services matter. The goal is not to replace the police but to deploy the right response first, with escalation pathways clearly defined.
By 2047, Kerala will be an aging society with higher loneliness, higher cognitive decline, and deeper mental health challenges. Treating these realities as law-and-order problems will exhaust institutions and traumatize families. Treating them as health-led safety issues will save lives, time, and public trust.
For Kerala Police, mental health first-response units represent a shift from force-first reflexes to care-first intelligence, without surrendering authority or responsibility.
