Is treating severe mental illness less important than treating a heart attack?

Doctors at the Barnes- Jewish hospital in St. Louis meet periodically to analyze every patient who entered the hospital in previous months in the midst of a heart attack.

Since minutes and even seconds count when treating cardiac arrest, the doctors analyze their response time and what can be done to get life-saving treatment to people faster and more efficiently. Since the hospital began this analysis the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has increased its rating to one of the top 17 hospitals in the nation for treating heart attacks.

Efficient, effective treatment is certainly vital when someone is in cardiac crisis.

It’s also vital when someone is in psychiatric crisis.

Yet in St. Louis, and all across the country, people with severe mental illnesses are forced to wait not minutes or seconds, but weeks and months until they’re sicker or until danger is imminent until they can get treatment.

CIT: It shouldn't be the only tool

Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) is an excellent tool for law enforcement officers who will inevitably encounter a person with a mental illness who is in crisis. The training helps officers to de-escalate situations that may otherwise turn deadly.

CIT is a very important tool, but it shouldn’t be the only one.

Law enforcement officers in Buchanan County, Missouri will be receiving CIT “in light of dwindling funding for mental health programs and increased demand for such programs”

Police Sergeant Matt Rock, a CIT supervisor in Buchanan County said:

“The response for CIT officers will range from a call of a mentally-ill person caught shoplifting to an emotionally-distressed subject threatening to jump off a bridge. The officers will facilitate emergency mental health assessments at the scene of a crisis."

Is it too much to ask to have police officers enforce the law and mental health professionals provide mental health evaluations?

Missing mentally ill

These stories rarely make national headlines. But, for the family of an adult with a severe mental illness who has gone missing, it’s nerve-racking and devastating. The families know the danger their loved one is facing.

For a person experiencing delusions as the result of untreated severe mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, following their delusions may seem logical. Meanwhile, families are left to wait, wonder and worry about their loved-one who is unable to care for themselves without appropriate medication.

In California, Donald Wayne Tomason’s father is still clinging to hope that his 33 year-old son with bipolar disorder who has been missing since February, will return.

According to news stories, there has been “no sign of the 33-year-old, who has delusions of being chased when not on medication to treat bipolar disorder”

Tomason’s father says he has “catastrophic fantasies” about what has happened to his son.

Unfortunately these stories are not uncommon. Last week in Missouri, a 67 year-old who suffers from schizophrenia was reported to be missing for more than a month, and in Texas a 47- year-old man with a mental illness has been reported missing for at least a week. The families of both of these men are deeply concerned about their safety.

A missing adult might not make national headlines, but when that person has a severe, untreated mental illness, it certainly deserves our attention.