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Post by Monica Grimaldo on Apr 27, 2016 15:28:30 GMT -4
This article is interesting as it finally addresses a possible solution to an ongoing, worsening issue in law enforcement. It was shocking to discover that the Crisis Intervention Team Training (CIT) was not implemented long ago as part of basic training. It is wise that they are finally putting a specialized training into affect. In further research, I learned the police force aims to address two basic goals with this training program: to improve officer, consumer and community safety and to redirect individuals with mental illness from the judicial system to the healthcare system. This proves that research has finally highlighted that many jails are filled with mentally ill prisoners and simply locking them up without paying attention to the healthcare part of treating their illness will just result in recidivism. The CIT training curriculum is made up of a five-day course of 40 hours where they have practical exercises, education about psychiatric medication, tours of inpatient and outpatient psychiatric facilities, inmate management, mental health court experience and education about common psychiatric conditions seen in the police force.
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Post by Tanya Joseph on Apr 27, 2016 19:49:55 GMT -4
We've all been told that knowledge is power. The C.I.T program implemented in the cities mentioned above is a great initiative. The program will give police officers the necessary skills needed to deal with mentally ill people; it will empower them and guide them in making the right decisions to properly handle any confrontation. It is sad though, that even today, with all the resources available, there are incidents where police officers engage in confrontations with mentally ill civilians and mishandle the situation. Hopefully, the above mentioned program will, in the end, provide to the public, officers who are adept in their profession. We can't however, totally blame the officers. It can be a frightening or unsettling scenario for many people when it comes to dealing with the mentally ill. How do you subdue such a person? I'm sure that's the first question which comes to mind when faced with such an issue. But all in all, there is always room for improvement and there is always something to learn. In any field, trained professionals are what we need today.
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Omer Sheikh, MS3, AUA
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Post by Omer Sheikh, MS3, AUA on Apr 28, 2016 10:18:50 GMT -4
With continued cutbacks in financing for mental health services has forced law enforcement to often be the front line in dealing with people with mental health illnesses. This unfortunate dynamic of poorly trained law enforcement dealing with people with mental health issues has often ended in violent confrontations, with many of them ending fatally. These fatal shootings have focused national attention on issues of mental illness, which has brought increased pressure from communities to develop a more effective approach and model that would entail less use of deadly force when dealing with mental health individuals. Additional crisis intervention training coupled with mental health education has been good a start towards producing a more sustainable model in many law enforcement agencies. In fact the city of Portland, under new reforms, has produced a model example in which a study showed that the use of force by officers had decreased by 65.4 percent from 200 to 2014, and allegations of excessive force by citizens declined by 74.2 percent from 2004 to 2014. Although these findings in Portland provides a promising start and a model for other law enforcement agencies to emulate, there is still much that needs to be done, which needs strong leadership to secure the appropriate resources in order to bring about the most effective and integrated solution to this growing problem.
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edms3
New Member
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Post by edms3 on Apr 28, 2016 10:23:01 GMT -4
In my opinion, it is unfortunate that the police are the ones who have to face the imminent problems our society has regarding mental health. Although police departments are now being trained on how to manage individuals on t he street with mental health problems, they are not formally trained in dealing with individuals with different sorts of mental health issues. In the beginning of this article, it talked about an individual who has yielding a sharp blade. The approach the police took, after being trained was to back off and leave the man alone. The thought of a mental health individual with a sharp blade walking aimlessly in the streets at night does not sit well with me. I would agree that with the author of this article that the resources for mental health have been cut down and are not readily available for those who need it. Either there not enough providers or the cost to see a provider is exuberant for most patients who do not have the financial means to hire a qualified mental health clinician. As for the community services available, the waiting list and time before and individual may be seen takes for ever. Meanwhile, these individual are roaming the streets, lost with no where to go.
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April 25th
Apr 28, 2016 15:38:06 GMT -4
via mobile
Post by Akinbi. OO on Apr 28, 2016 15:38:06 GMT -4
Those who are mentally deranged cannot respond well to the police and most times the response is threatening. I feel we need more psychiatry hospital to house the mentally challenge. Most cases that should be managed as an inpatient are been managed as an outpatient this has really increased the incidence of homeless people in the society moreso a structured program should be place on ground for educating the police on mental issues. There are several incidence of police shooting citizens who has no intention of harm.
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Post by Michelle Parisi on Apr 28, 2016 17:14:59 GMT -4
The cultural shift in law enforcement regarding the approach to cases involving the mentally ill is a refreshing change and has been long overdue. For those with little to no exposure to mental health or the mentally ill, mentally ill patients whether stable or in crisis can be scary. As a first responder I can recall several cases where I turned to my partner only to see the fear in their eyes, as they looked at what in my opinion was a calm mentally ill patient that we were about to transport. In my experience remaining calm, not unnecessarily invading the mentally ill individual’s space, and taking the time to communicate the situation to them in a nonaggressive manner often keeps them calm and can even diffuse an escalating situation. From the information provided in the article it is unclear whether the person on the beach with the samurai sword posed a threat to himself or others and to leave him there seems like an unwise decision. The changes in first responder protocol with regard to the mentally ill is a good start but more changes need to be implemented to properly address mental illness within communities and ensure the mentally ill receive proper care.
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Post by Clifford Thomas on Apr 28, 2016 17:33:51 GMT -4
Educational outlets to police officers about the mentally ill is absolutely necessary. From my experience dealing with police officers, they tend to share a common drive towards becoming a dominating, authoritative figure, without much needed educational requirements. Straight out of high school, potentially no collegiate-level learning, looking to enforce, and wielding life-ending weaponry, without outside help the mentally ill are most certainly dangling by threads above a shark tank. It just so happens my mother works as a traumatologist/psychotherapist and does this for a living in California for the local PD, and believes she is making a large impact; I would have to agree. Police officers need all the educational help and training they can get from any avenue of medicine and psychology before cracking the whip on the community with impunity. Sadly, where one would expect deductive reasoning to be a common mental exercise used by police, many departments around the country have reduced their employees to handing out speeding tickets during the day and looking for DUIs at night. All the more reason to have regularly scheduled educational outlets for police to think about while they stalk the populace.
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Post by LaTanya McLeary on Apr 28, 2016 17:41:00 GMT -4
I suppose something is better than nothing. Training police officers to deal with the mentally ill population is a good idea, but they can only do some much. Police officers are put in the difficult position of having to make split second decisions. Their choices, even with the best intentions, can and often lead to undesirable outcomes. It is unfortunate that the broken mental health care system has left so many mentally ill people on the street for the police to deal with. Now they are taking crash courses in mental illness in an attempt avoid disaster in these volatile encounters.
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Post by AA on Apr 28, 2016 20:16:32 GMT -4
The implementation of the CIT program in some states have been reported to have achieved some level of success especially in the way police officer defuse tense situations involving civilians with one sort of mental illness or the other. In my opinion and which was mentioned in the article and for states that have not implemented the CIT program, first responders to such situations should involve mental health physicians that can better explain the situation to the responding police officers and provide a more effective way in defusing the situation. The main problem which has been an issue is the fact that there are also some trigger-happy police officers and who always want to shoot to kill instead of shoot to immobilize. The police even though can be blamed, some shootings can still be looked at in the sense that at that point of pulling the trigger, the first thing going through the policeman's brain is, this is either my life or your life and by then all training about defusing such situations would have been discarded to an obscure location in their brains. If all the states can actually adopt the CIT program, I believe that the rate of such police shootings will actually reduce taking into consideration the reduction that has been achieved so far.
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Post by Dennis A on Apr 29, 2016 0:21:42 GMT -4
The article touches on two broken systems: the state of how police deal with people and the mental health system. Police have always been shoot first and ask questions later. This article highlights many instances where they could have deescalated the situation but the person was shot senselessly. I think police need new training. Training that teaches them to see and recognize those who are mentally ill. Training that will help them see past the stigma of mental illness. Towards the end of the article is discussed this. I'm happy they have realized that the training is needed. I think this is the first step. With training, the police culture of shooting first and asking questions later will begin to change. And when that comes, less innocent people will die.
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Post by Sachin Chatta on Apr 29, 2016 9:32:54 GMT -4
Mental Illness is a difficult thing to diagnose without any proper training. I believe that all law enforcement should get some kind of training to prevent deaths of mentally ill people. The CIT program in seems to be effective and I believe that it should be implicated throughout the USA. In the past couple of years the media has shown us many cases that innocent/ harmless individuals are getting attacked by law enforcement and in some cases even getting killed by law enforcement. If our law enforcements have proper training I believe that innocent peoples deaths would be less. I also believe that our media can do a better job and also educate the people in the world that mentally ill patients are humans too. Everyone just has a negative view of mentally ill patients but in many cases they are just sick and need help.
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Post by Shohana Ahmed MS3 on Apr 29, 2016 9:50:05 GMT -4
In the past few years the police departments all over the country have been under much scrutiny due to increase police brutality. Their technique on handling hostile situations has led to many unwarranted deaths of the young, old, mentally stable, and mentally ill. According to the website Center for Public Relations, The Bureau of Justice Statistics surveyed 6,000 people and based on extrapolations of the data, it is estimated that about 500,000 persons each year are "hit, held, pushed, choked, threatened with a flashlight, threatened or sprayed with pepper spray, threatened with a gun or other form of force" by police.
The article posted on NY times highlights situations the police have dealt with regarding the mentally ill. In 2001 Amnesty International published a report called "United States of America: Race, Rights and Police Brutality, which highlights the problem of police using excessive force, including deadly force, against mentally ill or disturbed people who could have been subdued through less extreme measures. It is understandable that at time when police officers are called to the scene they are unaware of the person’s wellbeing and in the case of the man with the sword any person attending to the scene would need to be quick thinking and fast in their decision but not anxious to where it can lead the officers to use excessive force. In the article it is also mentioned that the police department was divided in opinion on how the officers handled the situation; some say they would have done more.
Mental illness is tough for even doctors who have extensive training in the field of psychiatry, so I could only imagine the challenges police face on a daily basis. It is reassuring to know that departments all across America are implementing the crisis prevention training to help with such challenges, especially now that mental institutions are underfunded and many of the hospitals are shutting down. In March of 2011, the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) released a report that concluded between 2009 and 2011, the cutback that occurred led to significant reductions in both hospital and community services for vulnerable individuals with serious mental illness. This in turn leads to an increase amount of persons who have to where to be admitted- who are neglected to roam the streets creating dangerous environments when they are either provoked or having an episode. Therefore it is extremely important that law enforcement officers have the proper training not only to deal with the mentally ill but all individuals. Blunt force and brutality it not the answer.
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Post by arjunkundra on Apr 30, 2016 19:02:51 GMT -4
"People with mental illnesses are overrepresented among civilians involved in police shootings: Twenty-five percent or more of people fatally shot by the police have had a mental disorder, according to various analyses." To put 25% into a more tangible figure, this means 1 in 4. As we know, psychiatric healthcare is grossly underfunded and has result in a dire lack of psychiatric treatment for those who need it most. I think this correlates with the "downward drift" theory that those with severe psychiatric illnesses, namely schizophrenia, end up in a lower socio-economic status. Police in several counties, and a recent study showed that many departments target lower socio-economic groups and those of a latino/african-american background. It is clear that with the current law enforcement system and lack of psychiatric care, many ill patients desperate for help will be funneled through the judicial system rather than through the health care system. It is encouraging to know that this Crisis Intervention team training focuses on improving officer, civilian and community safety and to redirect individuals with mental illness from the judicial system to the healthcare system. I hope other state law enforcement boards follow their lead and further invest in cultural sensitivity training as well as how to better handle those with psychiatric illness and substance abuse conditions.
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