It says they're only doing it for nonviolent cases, so presumably someone just acting loopy because he forgot his meds and thinks he's Jesus, etc. In which case it's probably better to send someone actually trained to handle mentally ill people rather than send the cops who don't have much mental health training that doesn't involve drug abuse. It puts optimally trained people on these cases and frees up police from having to deal with these frivolous cases.
I’m not the guy you replied to, but I would think that the idea that you can assess, using the often-vague details of a 911 call, what people are likely to be dangerous or escalate situations would be a poor assumption, given that the fundamental trait of all these cases is that they are operating on various kinds of crazy-person logic. The reason the call is coming in in the first place is because they’re unbalanced, acting weird, and communicating strangely, so how would anyone know if the guy who thinks he’s Jesus gets mad if you don’t immediately pray to him, or has some other issue you have no idea about?
Is that close to the mark? Whether I’m right or way off base, I’d be interested in hearing more.
Firstly a mental health emergency is exactly that. It is an emergency where someone is at risk of harming themselves or others. If there is no risk of harm to people, by definition it isn't an emergency.
Secondly, there is a massive overlap between mental health emergencies and drug use. More than half the mental health emergencies we got at the hospital I worked at were people who had taken so many drugs that they were now insane. It was usually meth, but sometimes it was other things too, or a combination of drugs.
If you go on a four day meth bender you don't sleep. After (about) day two without sleep you start to dream while you are awake. By day four you are literally having a schizoid episode with both the high doses of meth and the brutal lack of sleep.
Worst of all are people with diagnosed mental health disorders, like schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder, who have decided that they hate the meds and are going to take illegal drugs instead to make themselves feel good.
Someone with rapid cycling bi-polar disorder (which can included voices in the head) who is on a meth bender and is convinced that they are literally Christ Returned is going to be very unpredictable and has a strong chance of being violent.
The treatment of mental health patients falls (roughly) into two groups. There are newbies and frequent fliers.
Frequent fliers have been in the system long enough that they have an extensive file. The people in the hospital / mental health unit probably know them by name. They may have a case worker. If they do have a case worker, then by all means call them and ask them to give direction. Hopefully they will have noticed the general trend in behavior before it is an emergency.
That said, for every mental health patient who is having a mental health emergency the team attending must have an ability to escalate along the continuum of force should it be required.
If a pair of social workers turn up to an actual genuine emergency and meet a 22 year old athlete who is being chased by literal demons and decides to stab them, they are going to die.
For example I dealt with a really big lad in his twenties who honestly, truly believed that his family was being killed and replaced by robots who were wearing their skins as a skinsuit. When he went off his meds he truly believed that evil shit out of Terminator was there to drag him off to the murder factories, and he acted accordingly. He was a really sweet guy, but he was absolutely terrified.
I dealt with another lad who was all of 19, who was literally a 6'8" pacific islander and a third bigger than I am. He had just become schizophrenic and had the voices of his ancestors in his head telling him that he was a God of Death; it was his job to decide who lived and who died and he should act on that judgment by killing people. He was not happy with those voices and argued with them. He was always telling them to fuck off and that he would not kill anyone. Cops and everyone else was utterly terrified that he was going to throw down, because it would have taken a small army to take him down without hurting him. It turns out he was a really sweet guy too, but we were very, very nervous.
These guys were mad (insane) rather than bad. Bad people who take shitloads of drugs are much worse and much more dangerous.
I don't have a lot of time for social workers in general, but the idea that cops are mean and evil and that mental health emergencies can be solved with hugs... well it is just bonkers. Someone will literally get killed as soon as they roll out this demented policy.
It says they're only doing it for nonviolent cases, so presumably someone just acting loopy because he forgot his meds and thinks he's Jesus, etc. In which case it's probably better to send someone actually trained to handle mentally ill people rather than send the cops who don't have much mental health training that doesn't involve drug abuse. It puts optimally trained people on these cases and frees up police from having to deal with these frivolous cases.
[REDACTED}
If you want to know why you are dangerously wrong, I'd be happy to tell you. Or you could just take my word that this is a fucking stupid idea.
I’m not the guy you replied to, but I would think that the idea that you can assess, using the often-vague details of a 911 call, what people are likely to be dangerous or escalate situations would be a poor assumption, given that the fundamental trait of all these cases is that they are operating on various kinds of crazy-person logic. The reason the call is coming in in the first place is because they’re unbalanced, acting weird, and communicating strangely, so how would anyone know if the guy who thinks he’s Jesus gets mad if you don’t immediately pray to him, or has some other issue you have no idea about?
Is that close to the mark? Whether I’m right or way off base, I’d be interested in hearing more.
Since you are interested.
Firstly a mental health emergency is exactly that. It is an emergency where someone is at risk of harming themselves or others. If there is no risk of harm to people, by definition it isn't an emergency.
Secondly, there is a massive overlap between mental health emergencies and drug use. More than half the mental health emergencies we got at the hospital I worked at were people who had taken so many drugs that they were now insane. It was usually meth, but sometimes it was other things too, or a combination of drugs.
If you go on a four day meth bender you don't sleep. After (about) day two without sleep you start to dream while you are awake. By day four you are literally having a schizoid episode with both the high doses of meth and the brutal lack of sleep.
Worst of all are people with diagnosed mental health disorders, like schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder, who have decided that they hate the meds and are going to take illegal drugs instead to make themselves feel good.
Someone with rapid cycling bi-polar disorder (which can included voices in the head) who is on a meth bender and is convinced that they are literally Christ Returned is going to be very unpredictable and has a strong chance of being violent.
The treatment of mental health patients falls (roughly) into two groups. There are newbies and frequent fliers.
Frequent fliers have been in the system long enough that they have an extensive file. The people in the hospital / mental health unit probably know them by name. They may have a case worker. If they do have a case worker, then by all means call them and ask them to give direction. Hopefully they will have noticed the general trend in behavior before it is an emergency.
That said, for every mental health patient who is having a mental health emergency the team attending must have an ability to escalate along the continuum of force should it be required.
If a pair of social workers turn up to an actual genuine emergency and meet a 22 year old athlete who is being chased by literal demons and decides to stab them, they are going to die.
For example I dealt with a really big lad in his twenties who honestly, truly believed that his family was being killed and replaced by robots who were wearing their skins as a skinsuit. When he went off his meds he truly believed that evil shit out of Terminator was there to drag him off to the murder factories, and he acted accordingly. He was a really sweet guy, but he was absolutely terrified.
I dealt with another lad who was all of 19, who was literally a 6'8" pacific islander and a third bigger than I am. He had just become schizophrenic and had the voices of his ancestors in his head telling him that he was a God of Death; it was his job to decide who lived and who died and he should act on that judgment by killing people. He was not happy with those voices and argued with them. He was always telling them to fuck off and that he would not kill anyone. Cops and everyone else was utterly terrified that he was going to throw down, because it would have taken a small army to take him down without hurting him. It turns out he was a really sweet guy too, but we were very, very nervous.
These guys were mad (insane) rather than bad. Bad people who take shitloads of drugs are much worse and much more dangerous.
I don't have a lot of time for social workers in general, but the idea that cops are mean and evil and that mental health emergencies can be solved with hugs... well it is just bonkers. Someone will literally get killed as soon as they roll out this demented policy.