Call the Police

What should you do if you believe someone is dangerous?  It's a sticky issue in psychiatry.  Here in Maryland, the requirements to have someone brought to an emergency room for evaluation by two physicians, include an imminent risk of dangerousness and the presence of a mental disorder.   If an emergency petition is signed by a judge, the police pick up the person in question and bring him to an emergency room for an evaluation.  In the ER, doctors can decide to certify the patient to an inpatient unit for further evaluation, or they can release the patient.  If admitted, a hearing must be held within 10 days.

Who else can file a EP?  Well, the police can.  If someone acutely agitated and violent and there is no time for a family member or interested party to obtain an EP, the police can be called and they have the option to fill out an EP and take the person to the hospital without a judge okaying the EP.  Depending on the circumstances, they also they have the option to arrest the individual and bring them to jail.   Finally,  a doctor can file an EP, but s/he must have seen the patient (--you can't get tell your rheumatologist-neighbor about your ill relative and get him to file an EP). 

So the police come -- either because they've been called in an emergency, or because a judge has authorized them to take someone to the hospital.  Most of the time, this goes smoothly.  But it doesn't always, especially since the person involved is presumably mentally ill and dangerous (the criteria for getting the evaluation).  Sometimes things get very upsetting, and sometimes they go very badly and someone gets hurt. 

In today's Baltimore Sun, there is an article by Justin Fenton that questions whether our police have the proper training to handle these crisis situations:

Baltimore Police have shot 10 people this year — eight of them fatally — leading some to question whether police are properly equipped to handle calls involving the mentally ill.

Only one of those shot was carrying a firearm, and several shooting incidents arose from calls to police about a disturbance involving someone with a mental illness. Relatives of some of those killed criticized police tactics, saying they shouldn't have lost loved ones after calling police to defuse situations that had ended peacefully in the past.

These are difficult situations, sometimes with no answer that will lead to a good outcome.   Fenton continues:

The director of the city's mental health organization praised the Police Department's training effort and said services for the mentally ill are lacking.

"If we don't do a good job getting people into treatment and something bad happens, we look to the Police Department and ask why did this person get shot," said Jane Plapinger, the president and chief executive officer of Baltimore Mental Health Systems. "Maryland is one of the best, but we unfortunately have an underfunded public mental health system everywhere in this country."

The Behavioral Emergency Services Team, or B.E.S.T. training, was implemented in 2009 and teaches officers to de-escalate mental crises, minimize arrests, decrease officer injury and direct patients to the city's mental health crisis programs for help. It has become mandatory for recruits.

"The police have been such a steadfast partner — I don't know how many [other] police departments are devoting four full days to this kind of training," Plapinger said.

The patients aren't the only ones in danger.  Police officers, or others, can be injured in these struggles. While it's not like there is an obvious answer besides calling the police, if the situation does not involve immediate danger, I often suggest that family member work to de-escalate upsetting situations and  convince a patient to go for help voluntarily, or with coercion, because even if it's coerced, these situations are often less upsetting for the patient and less dangerous for everyone if they can be done without the police.  Of course, this involves 20-20 hindsight, and the use of a crystal ball, because if there is a bad outcome and someone is injured or killed, then calling the police would have been a better solution.

I do wish I had that crystal ball.