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email article WASHINGTON -- Better coordination between police departments and mental health providers is needed to help those having mental health crises, witnesses said at a House hearing Thursday. Communities in Connecticut and across the country do their best to patch together various types or levels of mental health response with insufficient resources, said Charles Dike (pronounced Dee-KAY), MD, medical director of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. This patchwork typically relies too much on emergency rooms and police departments, and can result in patients languishing in emergency rooms, criminalization of persons with mental health and substance use disorders, and at times, the unnecessary and tragic loss of life.