Dealing with mental health crisis one Zoom call at a time

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As calls mount for changing how police interact with citizens, sheriff’s department officers in one Illinois county are hitting the streets with tablets that can connect people in distress with mental health professionals.

But when she saw the man might harm himself, his family or her officers with knives he was threatening to use, she sent an officer to retrieve the tablet. She turned it on, handed it to the man and told him to talk to the woman whose face appeared on the screen. And then she watched as the man immediately calmed down.

Then, as the pandemic left more people isolated in their homes, either unable to connect to services or unwilling to step outside and risk getting sick, the department was faced with an explosion of 911 calls linked to threats of suicide and other mental health crises. There are other programs around the country, but most involved mental health professionals riding around with police officers or in ambulances, Dart said. That’s fine for smaller communities but wasn’t practical for Cook County, where getting from one end to the other — without traffic — takes well over an hour.

Also, with a program that the department is using throughout the county as well as the west side of Chicago, there have been times Zoom calls have been impossible, due to spotty service or other reasons. In nearly 20 instances, officers set up a phone call between the people in crisis and mental health professionals.

Still, such a program cannot work unless police officers, particularly those who have been around for a while and have a certain way of doing things, embrace the idea of handing over at least some control of situations to someone — and something — else. “I looked at the guy and said, ‘This lady is going to help you, she’s not the police, she’s a therapist,’” Busching said.

 

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More police officers of color please!

Don’t trust them

My brain first reconciled this as 'officers are hitting people with tablets' because probably

That we have cops handling mental health calls is just crazy. Mental health responders could call in the big guns if they need help.

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Never visit these 10 Countries in 2021 😱🧐

You must be kidding, it ought to be other way around..'Who is sick?

that is a bad interpretation of the needs of the public.

wonderful, hoping this takes care of the COVID denying idiots

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