Cops and the Mentally Ill

Cops make the diagnoses for 5150, the psych just rubber stamp approve. A cop on your left arm, a cop on your right arm, a cop up the middle with a taser; then they throw you down and grind your face on the concrete of your own driveway. With persistence, I was able to persuade the cop cuffing me to stop trying to cut off the circulation to my right hand. Psych is a kidnap, extortion, forced drugging racket which costs me in the 5 figures every time, with the bills paid out of my pocket, not your tax monies. TSA screeners, cops, psychs all believe in superficial profiling. The only counseling most people need is an Image Consultant.

This is an outrage and has been for a very long time. The large majority of homeless people are mentally ill.. And you call this country civilized and compassionate??? You've got to be kidding!!! I will be moving back to europe soon and cannot wait! I have been disliking this country more and more everyday!

You hospitalize them and hope that the inpatient staff can get them to consent to treatment. If they won't and you have the legal documentation, you force meds. Time and time again, we have brought people out of psychotic states by "forcing meds" which sounds really inhumane. It is done VERY carefully and by the book at my hospital as to protect the patient's needs. Within days, usually hours, the patients come around and are much less paranoid therefore able to take their medicines by mouth. Doesn't mean they'll stay on them after discharge though.

As an inpatient psychiatric nurse, I find our local law enforcement to be quite helpful on the whole. They do what needs to be done to "rescue" the patients and get them care. The breakdown that I see is with our hospitals' Emergency Departments. They brand patients as "psych admits" and disregard their medical issues and frankly, their personal, basic needs.

Bless you cowgirl_lieutenant! Here in North Phoenix Arizona I have had great experiences with officers. My sisters and I have a childhood friend who is certifiably crazy. Sometimes he gets mixed up with his medications or just gets too paranoid to take them. Whenever he has a crisis and calls up threatening the sheriff or the FBI or the mafia, the police have always been patient and caring! We love this man and care for him like a brother. Most families are touched by mental illness in some way. The Democrats have invited everyone to participate in their party platform this year (even Independents like me or Republicans or whatever) When I go to our neighborhood meeting this Sunday I will suggest we make a plank for support of all those who work to treat them with dignity and respect. Mental illness and drug abuse are ilnesses and we need to treat them like you would treat any other disease. Make Insurance companies cover treatment!




everyone

how many families dump these people[no contact for 5-10 years ] then sue the state because their "loved one "died in state care "what a joke!!

I am so happy to see this national crisis finally being addressed. Here in California pharmacists had to sue the State to try to reverse the cuts in Medi-Cal funding for prescriptions such as anti-psychotic drugs that are the only thing standing between the poor mentally ill and long term hospitalization, being dumped on Skid Row or incarceration after committing crimes due to their illness. Unfortunately for us, so far the judiciary has been unable or unwilling to do so. I can't wait to vote Democrat in November!!!!

Ever since we changed the system to the more severely mentally ill release themselves in the mid-70's this has been an endemic and growing problem. Ideally since we can't confine them to prevent them harming others or themselves if they can check themselves out, we should taser them along with those suffering from dementia, blindness, or who are paraplegic.

There just has to be some acceptable medium between the old Insane Asylums and the exactly opposite total divestiture of any public responsibility at all for the seriously mentally ill. It is just too cruel to have to use violence to stop predictably violent people because a government thought more of the money than the person, and that is exactly what happens when you cut taxes to the bone. You love the money more than the people who should have benefitted from it in some humane way.

Rather than talk about what can be done to help the police with these EDP situations, maybe we should focus on providing these people with the care and help they deserve? Too many of our resources in this country go to treating symptoms as quick-fixes that can get people re/elected and not enough on treating the causes. It's a shame lives have to be lost in order for problems to be discussed.

My heart goes out to the millions of people suffering from mental illness and the lives they touch. They're beautiful people like anyone else.

Please let those in your city know about Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training of law enforcement to handle just these types of situations. The National Alliance on Mental Illnesses (NAMI) website for this program is: http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=CIT2&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=62&ContentID=35547

Please let those in your city know about Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training of law enforcement to handle just these types of situations. The National Alliance on Mental Illnesses (NAMI) website for this program is: http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=CIT2&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=62&ContentID=35547

Much as I hate to be a dissenter to the other comments, I am going to. The comments so far are unfair and ridiculously one-sided.

I know someone who is bipolar, had a fight with his family, and was taken to jail for misdemeanor assault after grabbing his stepparent on the arm, after fifteen years of psychological abuse by her and while on a period of mismedication by his doctors. He later reported to me that while in jail, one of the nurses came in and spoke to another inmate in a contemptuous tone of voice. He said to her, "Hey, don't talk to him that way", and instead of simply telling this person to be quiet, six 200 lb.+ officers dragged him out of the cell and beat him, then threw him into a cell covered in feces for about sixteen hours after he reported suicidal feelings. After this he was taken to a psychiatic hospital where the doctors gave him medicine that put him in liver pain and then said he should be "back in jail" if he didn't want to take it, where one of the other patients urinated on the furniture, where the orderlies refused to clean up the urine and instead stayed sitting and chatting, and where one patient punched another full-on in the face with absolutely no consequences.

This person I know is not someone with incurable illness and no job skills who's fated to be a drain on society - it's someone who's been trying hard to overcome the bipolar disease he inherited from his father, who possesses wonderful graphic design and programming skills, is now properly medicated, and is an asset to his employers. But in jail he was beaten for expressing an opinion - and not doing so violently - and in one of our state-funded psychiatric hospitals he was subjected to treatment that would shame a second-world country.

Quite honestly and frankly, our system is broken. Officers receive no training on dealing with the psychiatrically handicapped, and our state-funded mental health system has become someplace where people go to get sicker, not well. And there's another factor that disturbs me terribly, which is that if someone goes to a psychiatrist for help with problems they run the risk of being labeled "mentally ill" and having their legal rights reduced *permanently* after that - yet some of the people we see commenting on these boards are utterly sick, take obvious pleasure in cruelty to others, and yet would not be diagnosed because they'd rather die than admit to needing mental help of any kind and would retain full legal rights.

We need better regulation of the pharmaceutical industry to end the graft that harms our hospitals. And we need more training of police officers *against* the use of force unless it becomes completely necessary. There's an entire culture of violence in our police of which discussion is completely suppressed. There's too much greed and brutality across the board right now, and things are not going to get better until we stop it.

Oregon police officers are trained to use a variety of types of force to get suspects and residents to comply with orders, said Cameron Campbell, the director of training for the state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. They also are taught when to use which type of force, and are repeatedly drilled to help make snap judgments easier to make, Campbell said. "Officers need to respond with a level of force appropriate and reasonable given the totality of the experience," he said. "You go directly to the level of force necessary given the totality of the circumstance." There are many factors officers have to take into account when using force besides whether the suspect is armed or not, Campbell said. Environmental factors are a concern. Is the suspect hidden in shadow, or in the light of day? Is he or she hiding behind a wall, or out in the open? Is it rainy or dry? The officer also has to weigh his fitness and presence against that of the suspect, Campbell said. Is the suspect younger or older than the officer? Does he or she have a bigger build, or display a better fighting ability? What are the chances the suspect could overpower the officer? Range of training - Officers receive 12 hours of classroom training in use of force at the police academy, more training in their defensive tactics class and countless hours rehearsing different scenarios, Campbell said. The idea behind the training is to give officers a head start in making split-second decisions under pressure. Officers also need to stay on top of their training after leaving the academy, Campbell said. "They are what we call perishable skills," he said. "If you are not engaged and active, they will disappear over time." Silverton Police Chief Rick Lewis said Friday that members of his 17-officer agency take part in periodic training in the use of force. "The training includes a number of regular test questions on use of force given different scenarios and how they're to respond," he said. He added that the small police agency has its own certified Taser instructor.

Gonzalez fired 7 bullets at Andrew who, according to Grand Jury testimony was at all times only five feet from Gonzales. Gonzalez hit Andrew 5 times and one of those rounds was into Andrew's back. Yet according to the same testimony Andrew was at all times pursuing Gonzalez.

Gonzalez, weighing in at 237 pounds, a former Marine, a trained and practicing cage-fighter and armed with a Taser and a nightstick and a loaded gun, AND a TORCH!

AJ Hanlon weighed 130-pounds, was barefoot and UNARMED.

I recommend that everyone interested in the topic read Pete Earley's "Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness". Largely, it's about his struggles with his son's diagnosis and struggles with the court system, but told in a larger context i.e. it could be about anyone's child as Mr. Earley examines what it is like to BE mentally ill and in jail, or in and out of jail, or eventually dead. He provides a thorough historyf of social and political treatment of the mentally ill in the U.S. and explains how our jails and prisons have become completely overwhelmed with folk who are disturbed and have no other place to go.

As distasteful as it sounds: institutions begin to sound better and better. Personally, I believe that the legal system and society erred in deciding that everyone who is mentally ill would benefit from being "mainsteamed". There are some conditions that will never benefit from being exposed to normal society; there are some people who cannot function in a normal society, and cannot be taught how. Those people do need to be institutionalized, as much for their own protection as ours.

I am a mental health professional who deals with potentially dangerous situations on a regular basis. The NYPD and local police in my now suburban community demonstrate professionalism and self-control beyond what was the norm 10-15 years ago.
The use of tazers has been a life saver when conservatively used.
Remember, these are potentially life threatening situations on both ends.
One area that can be improved is the use of physical restraints and incidents of positional asphyxia.
On the whole... The men and women in the emergency services do a great job and are acutely aware that the less force they use; the less likely they are to be injured themselves.
Stigma and importance or the right to privacy of the mentally ill individual is something the vast majority of us will thankfully never have to face.
Creating databases about individuals is a slippery slope and Assisted Outpatient Treatment with Intensive Case Management are great programs...if administered properly.
The focus needs to be more on enhancing education our first responders in safely and effectively addressing psychiatric emergencies.
Every situation is different and the underlying illness is fairly inconsequential during the acute phase of the crisis unless it significantly benefits the officer in de-escalating the situation.
Considering social stigma and right to privacy.... we need to focus more on managing crisis situations in general.