EUGENE, Ore.—They are the kind of calls that roll into police departments with growing regularity: a man in mental crisis; a woman hanging out near a dumpster at an upscale apartment complex; a homeless woman in distress.
In most American cities, it is police officers who respond to such calls, an approach law-enforcement experts say increases the risk of a violent encounter because they aren’t always adequately trained to deal with the mentally ill. At least one in every four people killed by police has a serious mental illness, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit based in Arlington, Va.
But in Eugene, Oregon’s third-largest city, when police receive such calls, they aren’t usually the ones who respond. Here, the first responders are typically pairs of hoodie-wearing crisis workers and medics driving white vans stocked with medical supplies, blankets and water.
I overdosed on pain killers and my daughter who was 17 at the time took me to the hospital. Bad idea. We went through a whole trouble with child and family services because she wasn’t 18.
The second time I overdosed my friend took me and i was unconscious for the first two days and spent almost two months. I’m glad none of it was with police.
I wish the police had shown up for me. I went 3 years untreated in a small town in the mid-80s when I was 20 but nobody was interested in doing anything other than insulting and ridiculing me. Even my family were like that.
I like to think that society has moved on and developed since the advent of network tv and the internet. Hopefully people aren’t so closed minded these days.
Apologies about the link folks. It worked when I posted the link ie allowed full access to the article but now doesn’t. So many news sources going behind a paywall nowadays :
