By Bob Walsh
Sacramento County SO no longer responds to a lot of
mental health crisis calls. Even if suicide is threatened. Even if a
weapon is involved. The 911 dispatch refers the calls to 811, a mental
crisis operation. The thing is, even in CA., mental health
professionals are not idiots. They will not respond to a suicide threat
with a deadly weapon involved if the cops aren't there. If the cops
aren't there, they don't feel safe. They attempt to interact with the
5150 over the phone. Since this new policy kicked in about 90 days ago
there have been at least two severely negative outcomes from this
situation. Of course the person in distress might have ended up dead
anyway if the cops had shown up, and maybe other people would be dead
too. As it was only the person threatening suicide died.
Yes, it is a shame. Why anybody expected any other outcome is completely beyond me.
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