in de-escalating and handling mental health situations. Subsequently, due to job shortages within mental health departments, police are left to handle crisis calls. On the other hand, there are those police departments who are taking the necessary steps in modeling a positive, productive approach to handling mental health crises. Such approaches include a tactic where the officer engages with the individual by calmly persuading instead of yelling and using force and having a psychologist or psychiatrist on hand if need be. This type of model approach needs to take effect in every police department across the United States and be a part of the police academy curriculum, as well as a requirement for graduation. Individuals suffering from mental illness are very vulnerable and fragile, requiring a whole lot of patience, empathy and compassion, but most of all humility. Living in a society and world where mental illness is at its all time high, it is only logical that our police officers —our ”first responders”—receive the proper training and skills to handle these types of situations. Ultimately, it needs to start from the top, with our congressional leaders allocating the necessary funding, specifically for mental health crises, throughout every police department. This will enable the necessary training and provide professional staff to work along with the police on crisis calls. Though there has been much debate on the matter, it is clear that mental health crisis situations shouldn’t be handled first by police officers. Instead, these types of situations should be left to those individuals who are professionally trained, educated, and fully capable of handling these situations. Mental illness is real; it should not be stigmatized, and more needs to be done to shed light on the subject. Individuals suffering from this type of illness should not become another statistic. Instead, they should be recognized as real people with an unbearable disease, in need of help.
of ammunition and killed my friend. There was no crisis team available to help him, nor was there an ambulance called to admit him into the proper facility. In many situations like this one, there are those police who have claimed to feel threatened by the individual in crisis and/or in fear of their lives. In many cases, they overreact and prematurely overuse their authority and power, resulting in an unnecessary death. Sometimes just the presence of a police officer can make a mental health crisis situation worse (Lowery et.,2015). Individuals in need may feel threatened and scared just by the presence of a police officer or the sounds of sirens. In my friend's situation, his family ended up suing their city's police department for his death and won the lawsuit. Although money could never justify the loss and pain of losing a loved one, it was able to give comfort and closure to the family to know that justice was served and accountability was enforced. Every crisis situation is different for the individual in need. There are those that may have experienced a medical crisis due to taking prescription pills and suffering from the adverse effects. In these situations, individuals may experience psychotic episodes resulting in delusions, hallucinations, and agitation. Moreover, these types of crises can be mistaken for a mental illness, leading families and loved ones to react and call the police (Lowery., et al. 2015). Police have even acknowledged that they are ill-equipped to handle mental health calls; this causes speculation that more needs to be done. “We as a society need to put more money and funding into treating the mentally ill. We need to work with these people…before they end in tragedy” (Lowery., et al. 2015). Some states only provide minimal training
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