False Arrest Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System

[mucifer]

There are large numbers of underserved individuals with mental illness in communities across the U.S.–largely due the federal government’s failure to fund community programs in the wake of deinstitutionalization. A disproportionate number of these individuals become embroiled with the criminal justice system. It’s been reported that the number of prison inmates being treated for mental illness tops the total being served by hospitals and treatment centers.

Too often, first responders are unaware that they are witnessing a mental health crisis. They may misinterpret someone’s behavioral tics or failure to respond to questions, and quickly escalating tensions can lead to violence. It was just such a tragedy that led the City of Memphis in 1988 to partner with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and two local universities to teach specialized police units (Crisis Intervention Teams), to defuse explosive situations and to connect individuals with mental health services rather than arrest them. With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 came increased focus on law enforcement’s obligations to the disability community. Subsequently, police departments throughout the country (more than 40 states) have developed Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) programs based upon what has become known as the Memphis Model.

Roughly 25 percent of the Memphis police force?both emergency dispatchers and patrol officers?has been trained as CIT officers. The CIT officers receive 40 hours of training from mental health providers and advocates. A key element of the Memphis CIT program is that it consists of volunteers who are already trained officers, not new recruits. The volunteers are taught to recognize signs of autism, schizophrenia, OCD, drug-related psychosis, and other mental illness and to employ a variety of de-escalation techniques in order to increase the safety of all parties. They are counseled, for instance, to seek assistance from caretakers and family members, to speak softly and to repeat and rephrase requests for information.

More at: http://blog.specialneedsalliance.org/2012/06/false-arrest/

[Odin2005]

1. K&R

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. You know the first thing

To train pd on is diabetic crisis...(which can also pass for a mental crisis)

The second is in mental teams. It's not easy.

[MindMover]

3. I am a diabetic and my last trip thru Tex Ass homeland insecurity...

stopped me and my wife at midnight and patted me down and dog searched the vehicle for illegal immigrants and drugs....

the only illegal immigrants I had was my cat and the only drug I had was caffeine......

but the whole time I was stopped, they treated me like a criminal, telling me to keep my hands out of my pockets, look straight ahead not at them, and generally felt like at any moment and at the whim of this twenty something year old that I could be in some lock-down doing time with jimmy the loafer.....it is a weird world we live in and is only getting weirder by the day.....

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. I had TSA challenge me on lancets

Yup diabetic too.

I can see the POTENTIAL since I was trained in scene safety and shit like that, but it's extremely low and medical devices are allowed...I had the super read the riot act to the TSA agent, after I pointed out their own policies on their own website.