Mental Health Task Force

31 y/o AA male patient seen today for psychiatric-mental health assessment. He is awake, alert and oriented x4. He is calm, cooperative and follows commands during assessment. The patient reports he is depressed, difficulty sleeping and nightmares at night. The patient explained his depression is as a result of deep thinking from a news he received two days ago from his elder brother that his mother is ill. Stressors identified by the patient include losing his job a week ago before the news about his mother; his wife is 6-months pregnant with their first child, who currently works part-time at her present job; patient relates difficulty paying monthly bills and inability to provide adequately for his family as a man. The patient denies mood swings, suicidal/homicidal thoughts and ideation. Patient reports his spouse is at work at the moment and he does not want to put stress on his wife due to her current condition. Patient denies been hospitalized for depression or psychiatric illness; and denies family history of mental illness. Patient reports he is seeking help because he does not like feeling this way using terms of “helpless and loss of worth from his spouse”. Patient reports he needs help with his depression and nightmares before his current condition get out of hands and ruined his marriage.

emotionally capable of making an informed decision regarding participation in this study. Of the participants, 250 were male and 300 were female. Participants were selected from general

Mental health is a complex phenomenon that consists of a range of diagnoses, treatments and outcomes. Recovery from such experiences has historically meant to completely remove all symptoms of illness, but is now currently thought of as regaining a sense of control over and development of a new meaning and purpose in one’s life, rather than feeling defined by the illness. Each individual understands it in their own personal way, likened to a journey towards self-determination, choice, and empowerment.

The recent increase in emergency 9-1-1 calls involving mentally ill persons has heightened the awareness of the Criminal Justice System. Across the nation, law enforcement encounters with mentally ill persons have become more frequent, and the use of deadly force against mentally ill persons has increased. Since the deinstitutionalization of the mental health system, law enforcement officials have been tasked with controlling deviant and sometimes criminal behavior of persons who suffer from mental illness. As a result, law enforcement agencies have implemented crisis intervention training (CIT) and diversion tactics due to the numerous challenges faced when serving the mentally ill. Major deficiencies in the mental health system and State legislations have hindered progressive efforts towards assisting mentally ill persons. With the dramatic consequences associated with untreated mental illness, it is certain that law enforcement officers will experience an encounter requiring knowledge, specialized training, and the ability to build collaborative partnerships.

Furthermore, there are a number of barriers that prevent police from effectively dealing with people who have a mental illness. These include gaps in the community mental health service, and mix feelings about the nature of the responsibility when officers are responding to mental illness calls (Adelman, 2003). Barriers that are involve is, the inadequate advance information, when a situation arise police dispatchers do not ask for more information of what to expect when arriving to the scene as well any specific detail about the mental ill person such as, if the person has previously contacted the police before. Not

The police officers are trained to observe, predict, and react. They maintain the order and reinforce the law in our society. It is estimated that as many as 10% of all police interactions involve persons with severe mental illness (SMI) and that of all incarcerated individuals, 14.5% males, and 31% females suffer

In the United States the Mental Health Care field is one of the most underserved areas of healthcare. The mental healthcare field faces many challenges to the proper treatment of patients from both a societal and professional standpoint. From a societal perspective a negative stereotype is associated with patients seeking psychiatric care. Patients seeking care are often labeled as defective or damaged. Add in the complication that most patients with mental illness appear to be normal, accepting that someone is ill without outward symptoms can also be difficult for a society to understand. From a professional perspective the challenges within the mental health care industry include personal prejudice, staffing issues, and problems with coordinating care. The combination of these factors has a direct negative impact on the willingness of individuals suffering from mental illness in seeking the care needed to treat the symptoms of mental illness.

An officer frustrated with law enforcement and how mental illness is currently regarded said, “If we always do what we have done, we’ll always get what we’ve got. In regard to community relation issues, agencies periodically should examine where they are, where they want to be, and how they will get there. This applies to all phases of law enforcement. Dealing with individuals in mental health crisis withstanding no exception”. “Twenty five percent of the people who are shot and killed by police are mentally ill. Mental illness has always taken a risk as a big challenge for those in law enforcement”, as referenced by an FBI article Crisis Intervention Teams: Responding to Mental Illness Crisis Calls. It is a painstaking decision to make when a police officer is going on a call to a victim who’s sorrowfully not taken his or her medication for some time and has become violent. These calls often result in the shooting of the person who suffers from mental illness. Police officials are working on changes to reduce the amount of tragic shootings

The providers of Pathways Mental Health Services are all licensed professionals such as marriage therapist and family therapist, health counselor, chimerical dependency, and one of them having a PhD in family psychology.

While on patrol, I was dispatched to Mental Health clinic to meet with MSA Vanessa Reyna. Upon arrival I met up with OFC Figueroa and Reyna and was taken to room 2B108. We were in informed that Veteran Travis Leonard was involved in attraction with his spouse Tracy Leonard, which turned physical when he choked her. I asked the staff if he was under the influence of alcohol or narcotics and was told he use Marijuana two weeks ago. At 1245hrs, I notified Bastrop County Sherriff Dispatcher – 7015, and requested they send deputies to 197 Marlin St, Mcade, TX 78650 for a family violence in progress. Dispatcher gave me the Case Sheet Number of 17020877

Mental illness is a rising issue in our country. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that 1 out of every 17 people in this country suffer from a mental illness (Pearson 2014). With this large of a number, we should expect that our law enforcement personnel understand how to deal with these individuals, correct? Wrong. As reported by Pearson (2014), half of the all those killed during a police encounter last year were dealing with some form of a mental illness. According to Reuland (2009), there have been two national policies put in place. However, these policies, or procedures, are how to identify someone who is mentally ill and what services to call. It does not specify the procedure of a mentally ill individual who is becoming violent. In my opinion, the current procedures are inadequate

The purpose of Rick Parents (2011) study was to shed a light on policing tactics and use of force when dealing with a situation containing a person suffering from a mental illness, and how to properly distinguish when the use of force in necessary. Rick Parent (2011) has also brought to light the training techniques in place that help officers make the best possible decisions in moments of crisis, and how further examining those training techniques and improving upon them can potentially have an overall positive effect on the officer and the suspect.

Ellis argues that law enforcement officers are ill prepared to handle individuals that experience a mental health crisis, allowing a safe intervention for the officers as well as the involved individuals. Subsequently, the promotion of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), is promoted as a technique that can assist law enforcement agencies in intervention to handle the mentally ill crisis. To assist in this task, this article views CIT from the nursing aspect, reviewing law enforcement’s comprehension, understanding, awareness, and the overall attitude of law enforcement staff. In addition, viewing the role of psychiatric-mental health nurse can be beneficial in a community collaborative community-based health care system. The article notes, with

We strongly support the Grand Junction Police Department with this endeavor to create a Crisis Support Team for our community. Through the Behavioral Health Task Force they have identified a gap in service for our behavioral health patients in Grand Junction. This team would fill that cap assuring that patients would receive the appropriate care that they do not currently receive. At this time behavioral health patients are transported to the emergency department and are admitted to the hospital where they, wait for days, without receiving the proper mental health care that they require.

Lastly, the assumption that mentally ill people are distinctly different from mentally well people can lead to labelling and prejudice against those defined as abnormal under the biological model. It also has practical implications such as institutionalisation