Too many people have lost their lives because of mental health crises. Many police officers just don’t know how to handle these types of situations.
Desmond Phillip was shot and killed by two Chicago police officers while he was having a mental health crisis. He had been diagnosed with epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder. The community outcry and requests for more mental health crisis training may prevent further incidents of this nature in the future.
Paul O’Rourke-Babb, a local nurse practitioner who has worked in psychiatric care, said:
“He was a young man with a serious brain and mental health issues who was in crisis. He was not a criminal. This death was both avoidable and unnecessary. This killing should never, ever happen again.”
Phillips’ father called the police because his son was acting erratically. The police first used a stun gun, and then used bullets to diffuse the situation.
Lisa Currier, the founder of Crisis Care Advocacy and Triage, said:
“We have to learn how to speak to [people in crisis]. We have to be able to de-escalate the situation. A lot of times (though not always), that’s all it takes.”
Police should receive Crisis Intervention Training (CIT). It can help with things such as:
- “Besides jail, where can an officer take a person for mental health treatment—especially in the middle of the night?”
- “How can we speed up the transfer of custody at the ED, so officers can get back to work more quickly?”
- “Why do we keep getting calls for service of the same individual in crisis—sometimes only 24 or 48 hours after we’ve taken them to the hospital for an emergency psychiatric hold?”
CIT brings together law enforcement, mental health providers, and people with mental illnesses. It allows officers to learn about mental illnesses and how to respond to them. Every officer should have a course like this because they are often called to handle these types of situations.
Check out this video of police officers who are trained to help the mentally ill (after the jump):
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot.
