Just
was reading an interesting article on police and mental health. Not the
mental health of police, although that would be a very important issue to know
more about. Can you imagine the stresses of that occupation? But
about how police respond to individuals who are exhibiting mental health
problems, or individuals with mental disorders who are in distress or acting in
such as way as to be causing distress to others. So here is the piece: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jul/14/police-mental-health-training.
As you can see the title is: US Police need proper training in mental
health. And the sub-title is: “People suffering mental health crises are
too often subjected to brutality by poorly trained and frightened police
officers” According to the writer (in a UK paper by the way): “Every day
in various American communities, people enter mental health crises and their
friends and family members pick up the phone to call for help. Often, the first
responders on the scene are police officers, and the resulting interaction does
not go well. Poorly trained and frightened police officers may resort to
excessive force, and sometimes this ends in death for a person who is guilty
only of being in urgent need of psychiatric care.”
Although the piece is long on hyperbole and heart wrenching descriptions of police attacking individuals suffering from mental disorders, and short on any substantive data and overall balanced reporting regarding what police forces are actually doing, the writer does bring attention to an important issue. Certainly police officers should have more training in dealing with the unique needs of peole who have mental illnesses and who are behaving in a way that may put them or others at risk of harm. Certainly we need more and better community based mental health care services. These needs are real and we have to get working on doing more.
But
it is also important to recognize that much has been done in the last decade or
so. Here in Halifax, there is a mobile crisis service that I am proud to
have been part of its launch. It pairs police officers with mental health
professionals. It goes to where people need them and it works – not
perfectly mind you, but it works. One of my colleagues, Dr. Bianca Horner
and members of the Department of Psychiatry and the Mental Health Program have
developed a national training program for the RCMP, called “Recognition of
Emotionally Disturbed Persons” regarding this matter. Other police forces
in Canada are now beginning to address this issue. I have had the
opportunity to be part of the Minister’s task force on TASER in Nova Scotia and
the privilege to chair the sub-task force on excited delirium. As a
result of these reports there have been substantive movements towards improving
all aspects of first responder approaches to individuals with mental disorders.
While these are a good beginning we certainly
have to do more. It is not appropriate nor is it fair nor is it right
that our prisons have become holding bins for people who require mental health
care. The federal government has decided to build more prisons. I
for one would like to see them invest more in mental health care instead.
Don’t you think it’s preferable to treat someone who has a mental disorder in
such as way as to assist and support their recovery instead of throwing them in
jail? I do.
--Stan
