fncceo
Diamond Member
- Nov 29, 2016
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Jails are full of people that shouldn't be there because there's no other place to put them. And for that reason, many of them end up back on the streets. That is really frustrating for the police. They do their job but the system fails and too often the cops have to deal with the resulting tragedies.I'm somewhat familiar with the mental health system in my area. To put it kindly, it's a joke and a bad one at that. Cop picks up man walking down the middle of the street, half dressed talking to his imaginary friend. Cop drops off man at an ER where he spends 8 or 10 hours waiting for a psychiatrist who immediately says he need to be evaluated which takes about 3 days or more in a mental faculty. Since there are no openings, he is either dump on the streets or ends up in another ER. If he's really lucky he get in a pysch ward for evaluation. So after 3 to 7 days, he's shown the door with a diagnosis and a list of psychiatrists which he will quickly lose because he's so zonked out on meds he'll be lucky to find his way home. A few days after the meds wear off, he and his imaginary friend continue on his road of discovery bouncing around from ERs, short term stays in mental wards, jails, homelessness shelters, until he get's in big trouble, kills himself, or someone else.I think the right way to reduce the police is to reduce the need and that starts with providing the mental health and social welfare services that are needed.
Given that a large number of people that police deal with with on a daily basis are regular clients of both the mental health and social welfare systems ... I see a flaw in your theory.
This not the mental health system, I'm referring to.
Quite often that as a different outcome. The cop orders the crazy guy to do something, but the crazy guy refuses. Cop then kicks his ass an throws him in jail because he isn't being cooperative. If the crazy guy is lucky, this is the worst that happens. Many crazy guys are just killed because cops have that magic "feared for my life" excuse.
It is not quite often, but it happens. It is easy to arm chair quarterback and blame cops. Cops have a very difficult job. Try dealing with a paranoid schizophrenic fully delusional and psychotic. I know how, I am trained and did it for 30 years.
Most cops are good people doing a very difficult job. Without cops, ER's, and EMT's society falls apart inside a week. The people who respond when you are dying or in full blown crisis deserve your respect. At some point they will probably save your life.
Cops aren't trained to deal with that paranoid schizophrenic fully delusional psychotic, and they shouldn't have to be. That's why we need to be able to send people that are trained to deal with them. Our jails are full of mental patients who shouldn't be there. That costs us a fortune, does nothing to solve the crazy problem, and forces cops to make life changing, or ending decisions that they are not qualified to make. Removing the responsibility of dealing with those crazies from cops shoulders would save money, and free them up to do the job they are trained for.
Of course it is frustrating for them, especially since that is part of the job that they have no training or education for. Imagine how much money and stress could be saved by the cops if trained mental health practitioners could deal with those people. Th added bonus would be fewer incidents of excessive use of force. Sounds like a win-win to me.
Actually, many police department have trained health care workers assigned to a police unit (where the police provide security for the mental health clinician). Their task is to attend calls that are assumed to be mental health related and make a judgement as to whether a not the subject of the call should be referred for further treatment. It's a very busy shift as they tend to work a larger area than a regular unit.
Anyone who threatens to harm himself (or someone else) automatically goes to hospital for further assessment. But, in other cases, it's the job of the clinician to say what follow on, if any, takes place.
Sounds like a great idea. I don't think it is very widespread though.
The obvious limitation is the number of available mental health care works and the number of police units available to take away from all other emergency responses and dedicated to a single task.
If police are defunded, this would probably be one of the first non-essential tasks to be eliminated.
And that money would be redirected to other agencies to deal with those things. If it's not the cop's job, why would it be funded by the cops?
Sending out the clinicians without police protection would save money. Although, I don't expect many clinicians would volunteer for that job.