The police and mental health issues

Feb 28, 2015 Editorial

One in 10 calls that police receive involves a person in mental-health crisis. And these folks are often very agitated and confrontational – seemingly dangerous. Taught that their first responsibility is to protect their own lives and those of the public, police sometimes resort to the use of deadly force. Such outcomes are tragic and, in most cases, unnecessary.
Recently, the problem was highlighted in a segment of the PBS’s “News Hour.” In it, the focus was on a series of such shootings in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The most recent involved a psychotic, homeless man camping illegally in the foothills of Sandia Mountain. Called to deal with this minor infraction, the police arrived and, with weapons menacingly drawn, proceeded to argue with his paranoid delusions. When that failed, as it would with anyone in psychosis, they fired a stun grenade. When the poor fellow turned away to pick up his backpack, an officer shot him three times in the back.
It was painful to see the police helmet-camera footage of this because, in most cases with medication and proper treatment, such people can and do recover.
Aside from the human tragedy, shootings such as those in Albuquerque increasingly trigger lawsuits by family members resulting in large financial penalties against the departments involved. The rationale for such findings is that all departments should have CIT-trained officers. If they don’t, they can be held negligent.
Having found that such shootings can be very expensive, Albuquerque now gives all of its officers CIT training. Better late than never.
It is not so bad in Guyana. Indeed there are confrontations between the police and the mentally ill. And often such confrontations end violently. A mentally ill man walks into Scotia Bank and attempts to hold up a teller. The ordinary bank security was enough to nullify any threat but the bank called the police who in short order shot and killed the assailant. There were no negotiations.
We don’t have to look that far afield to see an example of lessons learned the hard way. All police get a few hours on mental illness in basic training. On many occasions responding to a call to take a very psychotic young man to court-ordered treatment, the police shot him when he pulled a knife.
Shooting may not necessarily be the order of the day in Guyana but beatings certainly are. Many a mentally ill person is beaten so severely that sometimes he dies.
SO WHAT IS CRISES INTERVENTION Team training? It all began in 1988 in Memphis, Tennessee, when after the fatal shooting of a mentally-ill man, the Memphis Police and the Memphis chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) came together to design what we now call CIT.
That model then spread quickly to Ohio and eventually throughout the country. Since 2000, the SE Ohio CIT Committee has trained more than 300 first responders. Guyana has numbers nowhere near that figure. In fact, one is left to wonder whether any police were trained.
NAMI Athens’s role is to give the officers the opportunity to hear from folks in recovery from mental illnesses and from family members of the mentally ill. Then there are panels with other folks in recovery and with persons having family members with mental illnesses. For many officers who normally see persons with mental illness only when they are in crisis, this is a real eye-opener.
Guyana needs to begin having its police trained to handle mental health crises. In fact, it may even need to have the society trained to recognise mental health episodes. Even the so-called educated in our midst laugh at the mentally ill.
There have been several calls that, in other communities, might well have resulted in death or injury. There have also been hundreds of incidents in which persons in crisis have been politely helped along the road to recovery in some countries. Not so in Guyana; at least not yet.

Latest News

The police and mental health issues

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Battle for Glory: Petra-MVP Sports Girls U11 Football Championship...

Dinar Trading and Forrester’s Concrete solidify...

Linden vs. Georgetown rivalry takes centre stage...

Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey Tournament...

Top athletes and officials recognized at 2023...

Guyana Beverages Inc. partners with GFF for Maid...

Features/Columnists

The Windfall Tax paradox

Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all

What sense third parties, then

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

The police and mental health issues

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]