Boo

Here is something REALLY frightening.

Law enforcement officers, forced for too many years to be de facto front-line mental health workers, are being charged with managing people with mental illnesses … by the mental health community.

It is spooky to hear mental health providers so fully divest themselves of responsibility for the sickest citizens, expecting law enforcement to pick up the slack. After James Chasse died in a terrible tragedy, the reaction of the mental health community hasn’t been to look inward at their role in averting the deadly encounter, but to gather in force to demand action from law enforcement.

Beckie Child of the Mental Health Association of Oregon said delegates to a mental health conference held in Portland last week signed a petition pressing the mayor to commit to training all cops in crisis intervention, and to do so within six months.

James Chasse did not deserve to die in an encounter with police, and it is important that everyone keep the pressure on law enforcement to examine actions, policies, and procedures that may have contributed to his death.

The difference is, the police seem to KNOW they have to step up. They are working on increasing CIT training and assessing their behavior. They are actually acting to make things better, even as they remind us that the problem begins … and should be handled … long before someone ends up in an encounter with an officer.

Robert King, president of the Portland Police Association, said Monday that while the union supports any increased training, "it would of course not changed the encounter with Mr. Chasse. Until our community gets serious about helping the mentally ill, it won't matter how much training we have."

The issue in Oregon is twofold – the deadly encounter and the years of neglect that led up to it. The more the mental health community can keep the focus on the encounter that cost Mr. Chasse his life, the less they have to face the very scary truth – it is the long-term failure of the mental health system that led to this tragedy in the first place.

Finger pointing in Oregon

“We all need to take some of the responsibility for society's problems.”

So says the chief executive officer of Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare in Oregon, in an oped piece today. You’d think the piece would go on to talk about how the community of providers can better help people in crisis. Instead, it spouts the latest provider party line:

“Police need to be able to recognize mental illness and work more effectively with someone who is experiencing a different reality.”

Who is to blame for a tragedy like the recent one in this community?

The writer notes that Project Respond, the crisis intervention group that works with police in crisis situations, was not contacted in the Chasse case.

We hear it all the time. It isn’t our fault because we weren’t called, it isn’t our fault because we don’t have enough resources, it isn’t our fault because the police need to be mental health professionals.

What happened after James P. Chasse was brought into custody was horrible, and answers need to be sought. As law enforcement assesses their policies, their mistakes, and their actions, we think the mental health community – so eager to speak up now – should do the same. Chasse had schizophrenia, and according to one family member, "He was in and out of half-way houses and acute care settings with various medical/psychiatric diagnoses and treatments prescribed."

His death came at the end of a violent struggle. His entire life was a similar battle. The mental health community should step up and assess their role, not in his brutal end, but in his brutal day-to-day life that preceded it.