For Police, a Playbook for Conflicts Involving Mental Illness

[SummerMadness]

For Police, a Playbook for Conflicts Involving Mental Illness

People with mental illnesses are overrepresented among civilians involved in police shootings: Twenty-five percent or more of people fatally shot by the police have had a mental disorder, according to various analyses.

[...]

In response to public outcry, many police departments have, like Portland, turned to more training for their officers, in many cases adopting some version of a model pioneered in Memphis almost three decades ago and known as crisis intervention team training, or C.I.T.

 

[nightflight]

Henderson County authorities responded to an East Flat Rock house around 5 p.m. after getting a call about an assault. They then did a welfare check on Kay Frances Campbell, 60, who was accused of the assault.

After talking with Campbell, the deputies decided she needed to be committed, according to spokesperson for the Henderson County Sheriff's Office Frank Stout. The deputies were waiting for involuntary commitment papers when she pulled out what appeared to be a weapon, Stout says. Stout says the deputies were "in fear for their lives and fired." Campbell was killed.

http://wlos.com/news/local/deputies-name-woman-killed-in-henderson-county-officer-involved-shooting

Not hijacking your thread, but thought this might be pertinent.

 

[TerranceL]

For Police, a Playbook for Conflicts Involving Mental Illness

More training for police is a definite necessity. That said we need to revamp how mental illness is handled in this country.

By the time the police are called to intervene it's already too late.

 

[SummerMadness]

More training for police is a definite necessity. That said we need to revamp how mental illness is handled in this country.

By the time the police are called to intervene it's already too late.

I also think people need to stop using the police as a means to dealing with mental health crises. I think this is a byproduct of the amount spent on inpatient care, we spend a lot less these days, but we have increased our expenditures on prescription and outpatient care.

Seven facts about America's mental health-care system

 

[TerranceL]

I also think people need to stop using the police as a means to dealing with mental health crises. I think this is a byproduct of the amount spent on inpatient care, we spend a lot less these days, but we have increased our expenditures on prescription and outpatient care.

Seven facts about America's mental health-care system

I agree, the problem is many people don't know who to call when a loved one is having problems and needs seriously help.

I googled "involuntary commitment" and found this article:
http://psychrights.org/states/Maine/InvoluntaryCommitmentbyAliciaCurtis.htm

It explains that the laws are different for each state, the writer looks at his home state of Maine specifically, there the process to commit someone against their will is started by... calling the police. How much training do police get to defuse situation where mentally unstable/ill people are acting out? It would seem to me that some other group, someone with mental help training would be better suited, sure back them up with an officer if needed.

Further I added "Texas" to the search terms and found this:
http://www.tdcaa.com/journal/beginner’s-guide-involuntary-commitments

Basically in Texas police can call out someone trained to handle such situations if needed. In the story the piece starts off with a man on a call with a insurance company states that he's going to go out into I-10 and splat himself. The insurance company contacts Houston police, they police go out the man is angry that the police are there, the police call for the mental health professional. She talks the man down.

I would argue that it should be standard that in a situation where someone is talking like they wish to self harm the mental health professional should be sent immediately to the location. No waiting to call someone in.

From your linked article:

By treating the rest in the least-restrictive settings possible, the thinking went, we would protect the civil liberties of the mentally ill and hasten their recoveries. Surely community life was better for mental health than a cold, unfeeling institution.

But in the decades since, the sickest patients have begun turning up in jails and homeless shelters with a frequency that mirrors that of the late 1800s. “We’re protecting civil liberties at the expense of health and safety,” says Doris A. Fuller, the executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit group that lobbies for broader involuntary commitment standards. “Deinstitutionalization has gone way too far.”

Your link also says we have woefully few mental health practitioners compared to other practices. That's not really all that surprising.