tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post6290011238795523882..comments2024-03-18T03:28:36.581-04:00Comments on Shrink Rap: Call the PoliceUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-60264803008888171982012-08-27T10:43:22.526-04:002012-08-27T10:43:22.526-04:00I was petitioned twice, both times by a former hou...I was petitioned twice, both times by a former housemate, both times for being seriously depressed. The experiences each time were so different it leads me to believe that any training that exists is not very effective. The first time I was home alone reading on the computer. Not agitated, not violent, not intoxicated. Just quietly reading. The police knocked on the door, held up a piece of paper and said a judge had signed it, I opened the door, and the next thing I knew I was face down on the floor, arm twisted behind me, knee in my back, and then handcuffed. I was in my pajamas. They wouldn't let me change, call anyone, get any shoes. They kicked my dog (who is friendly) and wouldn't let me check on her. Finally one of them grabbed a pair of shoes (dressy sandals) from the closet and they walked me half a block up the street to their car. I don't know why they didn't park in the empty space right in front of my house. Every interaction they had with me was at top volume and they made a point of jerking me around by the arm. Handcuffs are quite painful, as it turns out.<br /><br />The second time they came to the door I was teleworking. These police officers were polite and respectful. They let me change my clothes. They let me arrange care for the dogs. They apologized for needing to handcuff me (the rules). They did not jerk me around painfully. They wished me well when they left me at the hospital.<br /><br />Both times in the psych ER I was seen by a physician and a psychologist. Both times these two people agreed that I did not need inpatient treatment. Both times they were overruled by a third person (MD). Both times I agreed to be admitted as a voluntary patient and both times I was admitted as an involuntary patient (which makes life much harder). <br /><br />I have no idea why the two situations were so different. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-91263562137782664102012-08-25T16:59:08.578-04:002012-08-25T16:59:08.578-04:00I could also live without predictive text while I ...I could also live without predictive text while I type. I meant disturbing, not distributing. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-41714135186980531692012-08-25T13:10:59.918-04:002012-08-25T13:10:59.918-04:00Thank you for posting. I was thinking that you wou...Thank you for posting. I was thinking that you would not post because of the distributing video. I am not asking you to remove the graphic. It is so out of touch with my experience but it is not offensive in and of itself. I am saddened by it but I am also deeply saddened by the video link I shared with you. Perhaps you achieve balance by allowing people to view both.<br />We do need a kinder gentler system and yes, it will cost money. On the other hand, our present system costs lives.<br />If those two cops passed me on the street today, they would see nothing more than someone carrying groceries home to cook dinner for a family.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-43560036223198366622012-08-25T12:56:39.762-04:002012-08-25T12:56:39.762-04:00Dear Last Anon--
The comment moderation is on to b...Dear Last Anon--<br />The comment moderation is on to block rudeness and spam, not to stop people from saying "this upsetting thing happened to me" or "I disagree with you." It's all about delivery, not the message, and your delivery was fine (almost everything gets past moderation). <br /><br />It's a horribly upsetting video.<br /><br />Pete Earley's book Crazy really does a great job of talking about flaws in the system and how some police forces have better training than others.<br /><br />I'm sorry if the graphic upset anyone. They are generally chosen quickly, sometimes I find stuff that is very appropriate and other times, I use what I find quickly. They are really just meant as a visual to draw your attention in and make the blog as a whole more appealing, rather then just having text. My thinking on these things is that I can't please all the people all of the time, and that one objection is one person's opinion. If two people object, I take it down. If anyone else wants the graphic down, just say so. It was not intended to mock or to make light of a serious situation. For this particular story, I did not want to use a graphic of a police officer with a live police officer because I didn't want to imply that that particular officer had shot anyone, so I went with a cartoon. <br />I was going to use a police car, but they also had town names on them and I didn't want to imply that any particular police force was particularly violent towards mentally ill people.<br /><br />I'm sorry to hear you had such a distressing experience. I am all in favor of a kinder, gentler system.Dinahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09227988351623862689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-3386477233800277262012-08-25T12:26:13.117-04:002012-08-25T12:26:13.117-04:00I doubt you will post my comment but please watch ...I doubt you will post my comment but please watch this video.<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W-Wo7xaSv0<br /><br />I had was taken in to hospital by police. I had no weapon of any kind. I was agitated, off my medications and my family called 911. I was not physically threatening to two cops, each of whom probably tipped the scales at about 100 pounds more than I do and each of whom had a gun. The police did not shoot me but I have never been manhandled so brutally and spoken to so cruelly as by those two with the exception of when someone in my life beat me or abused me. Your graphic is difficult to look at. It feels as though it was made to mock people who have had this experience and worse. It makes me very sad.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-50860140102018182552012-08-25T09:43:27.129-04:002012-08-25T09:43:27.129-04:00Oops, I left out the link to the commitment forms....Oops, I left out the link to the commitment forms.<br /><br /><a href="http://dhmh.maryland.gov/mha/SitePages/forms.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://dhmh.maryland.gov/mha/SitePages/forms.aspx</a>Royhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08735111026336537653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-89470419525149903242012-08-25T09:41:52.652-04:002012-08-25T09:41:52.652-04:00A few clarifications...
"gravely disabled&qu...A few clarifications...<br /><br /><b>"gravely disabled":</b> Maryland does not have such a statute, though clinically we have recognized inability to care for self due to a mental disorder as a reason for involuntary hospitalization if there is some evidence that their life or health is in danger. Note that dementia alone is not a qualifying condition nor is substance abuse alone.<br /><br /><b>"imminent" danger:</b> Clink, correct me if I'm wrong, but Maryland does not use the concept of <i>imminence</i>, at least not in the certification standards. Here is a link to the various commitment forms for your perusal. Below are the "six questions" that two physicians or one physician and one psychologist must satisfy for involuntary admission:<br /><br />1. The individual has a mental disorder;<br />2. The individual needs inpatient care or treatment;<br />3. The individual presents a danger to the life or safety of the individual or of others;<br />4. The individual is unable or unwilling to be admitted voluntarily;<br />5. There is no available, less restrictive form of intervention that is consistent with the welfare and<br />safety or the individual; and<br />6. If the individual is 65 years old or older and is being referred for admission to a State facility, geriatric evaluation team has determined evaluation team has determined that there is no available, less<br />restrictive form of care or treatment that is adequate for the needs of the individual.<br /><br /><b>Hearings:</b> Dinah said that hearings must be within 10 days. This is correct although the attending physician can request a 7-day extension. This is unusual (maybe 1 in 10), and the patient/attorney must agree to the extension.<br /><br /><b>Who can file an EP?</b> Dinah mentioned physicians and police. Also included are social workers, nurse practitioners, professional counselors, and probably a few others. Also, anyone can go to a judge and request her to execute an EP based on information the petitioner provides to the judge. I've seen this method be abused sometimes.<br /><br />Dinah mentioned families should try to settle the person down rather than call the police. I agree. But, I've seen many situations where I am certain that what happens is a family member intentionally pushes someone's buttons and riles them up so that they become violent, and THEN they call the police. Note that the police have discretion about this, so if one is completely calm and reasonable, it is unlikely that the person will be taken in. But if they are yelling or furniture is overturned, etc, then someone is probably being taken in.<br /><br />Police officers receive extensive training in most jurisdictions on interacting with people whose judgment may be impaired due to mental illness. Some have trained mental health professionals who meet them at the scene.<br /><br />I must say, I do hear about these situations where it seems the police use excessive force. I recall a situation many years ago in Baltimore where a confused old lady was brandishing a pair of scissors. At gunpoint, she refused to put them down and apparently advanced towards the officer, who shot her dead. <br /><br />Really? Aren't there less deadly methods for stopping a demented scissors-wielding senior citizen. Bean bag gun? A net? Newspaper coupons?<br /><br />I'm not in that business, and I understand it is high-risk and one must make split-second decisions, so I try not to judge, but you do wonder.<br /><br /><b>Final comment:</b> rather than call the police, there are often city or county helplines that can be called. They can help de-escalate a situation, sometimes even respond with services.Royhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08735111026336537653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-80280245157648546172012-08-24T20:49:45.795-04:002012-08-24T20:49:45.795-04:00Something more can always be done, but pretty much...Something more can always be done, but pretty much it boils done to $$$. Money for more training, money for more law enforcement personnel, money for more jail beds, money for more psychiatric beds, money for more mental health experts... Where does that money come from?<br /><br />Instead, we have had all of those things dwindling away bit by bit in my community. I suspect that this is the case in most communities in the U.S. as well.<br /><br />I know our police force relies more heavily on tasers in our community now, so officers can move in on an unruly suspect without getting hurt in certain situations.<br /><br />O.K. I'll stop... I'm jaded. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-82186762754791312342012-08-24T15:24:57.989-04:002012-08-24T15:24:57.989-04:00Of course a lot more can be done and it can be don...Of course a lot more can be done and it can be done successfully. Here is a link to a highly successful organization that has worked successfully to reduce violence at every step of the way including post incarceration:<br /> http://thebarbaraschneiderfoundation.org/<br /><br />Read the "About Us" section to see how they got started.George Dawson, MD, DFAPAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03474899831557543486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-31136562937367625622012-08-24T13:39:53.025-04:002012-08-24T13:39:53.025-04:00Anon-- sometimes family members and mental health ...Anon-- sometimes family members and mental health workers end up dead, too.<br /><br />I think the issue is to strive for doing all that can be done. There are ways of de-escalating upset people, but they don't work with everyone in every circumstance.<br /><br />Given a number of police-involved shootings, it does seem reasonable to at least ask the question of whether something more could have been done. The answer might be no? Dinahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09227988351623862689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-27455345693440338612012-08-24T13:34:18.836-04:002012-08-24T13:34:18.836-04:00as someone who was married to a cop, a lot of thes...as someone who was married to a cop, a lot of these problems they dealt with were actually people that had a dual diagnosis - mental illness with an alcohol and drug abuse problem. The problem here is that there are next to no beds in the jail or the psychiatric unit, so these individuals end up getting streeted and only a very few get the treatment they desperately need. <br /><br />And although law enforcement personnel do get training, it is not enough. mental illness is such a wide spectrum and the only people that know it intimately are the sufferers, family members and those trained in the mental health field.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-24430729414488845002012-08-23T16:14:53.201-04:002012-08-23T16:14:53.201-04:00I am leaving these criteria to Clink, this is real...I am leaving these criteria to Clink, this is really her area of expertise. She wrote a whole section on this in our Shrink Rap book. Dinahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09227988351623862689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-8420799616620209332012-08-23T16:11:16.353-04:002012-08-23T16:11:16.353-04:00What happens if a person is not dangerous to anyon...What happens if a person is not dangerous to anyone else, but not able to look after themselves in very basic ways? Mental health professionals in CA are suggesting I call the police on a friend who is not suicidal because they can put her on a 72-hour hold as "gravely disabled". But doesn't it seem weird that me John Q Public can have someone hauled away? I'm glad to see there's an EP in Maryland.RobotRobotnoreply@blogger.com