Glen had the opportunity to work alongside multi-agency teams in Canada, the USA, and the UK, including those led by both law enforcement and non-law enforcement organisations. These teams aimed to divert vulnerable individuals away from the judicial system. Initially, Glen’s focus was on law enforcement-led diversion programs for individuals with intellectual impairments. However, he soon recognised that this approach was too narrow for two key reasons.

First, in real-world scenarios, “mental health” incidents are rarely defined by clinical diagnoses. Emergency services often respond to individuals experiencing a “mental crisis,” which may involve neurodiversity, substance use, mental illness, or co-occurring conditions. Glen observed that jurisdictions should adopt more inclusive language to reflect this complexity, referring to such situations as Behavioural Health Crises. This terminology better emphasises that emergency services are addressing the behaviour resulting from a health crisis.

Second, law enforcement alone is not responsible for identifying and managing high utilisers of crisis services. However, this responsibility does not fall solely on health services or NGOs either. Successful programs rely on multi-agency collaborative partnerships, recognising that these individuals often represent a shared demand on resources and require a coordinated response.

Glen’s findings culminated in his report Reducing Recidivism in Behavioural Health Crisis Cycles focusing on the concept of diversion, which he outlines in four distinct stages: