Badly needed': Dallas first responders laud new ways to help mentally ill in 2017

[Disir]

It's been years in the making, but finally, a plan to help scores of nonviolent, mentally ill people avoid jail and get treatment will take shape in the coming year, Dallas County leaders said Monday.

The changes, to be primarily funded with a $7 million private grant, aims to bring fewer mentally ill people to the jail, release more of them while they await trial and connect them with services once they're freed so they don't return.

The goal: to facilitate treatment for mentally ill people who now disproportionately use emergency services such as police, paramedics, the jail and emergency rooms. That would then free up public safety and health workers to focus on other pressing issues, and ultimately cost taxpayers less.

'Badly needed': Dallas first responders laud new ways to help mentally ill in 2017 | Dallas County | Dallas News

Except, Dallas isn't known to have a plethora of services available.

Risk assessments don't change that.

 

[Trump.Stamped]

That is badly needed everywhere. The powers that be have dumped the mentally ill and the drug and alcohol dependant on the street and forgotten about them. Viable alternatives to jail are desperately needed.

 

[Correll]

We need to be able to institutionalize people who can't take care of themselves against their will.

 

[Anathema]

That is badly needed everywhere. The powers that be have dumped the mentally ill and the drug and alcohol dependant on the street and forgotten about them. Viable alternatives to jail are desperately needed.

The bleeding hearts got rid of them all in the 1970s and 80s by shutting down the asylums or forcing them out of existence through regulation.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Speaking of the mentally ill...