May 26, 2006

Opportunism Is TAC-y

The fine folks at Fuller Torrey's Treatment Advocacy Center posted this on their blog the other day:

"In a Maryland county, law enforcement doesn’t allow the crisis team to put their own lives at risk. That means if they are called to a standoff, there isn’t much they can do.

Not sick enough to get a hospital bed, too sick to get help from the crisis team – once again, it is law enforcement officers who are forced to fill this bizarre void, stepping in to deal with people in acute psychiatric crisis because the situation is too dangerous for those who are actually trained to handle it.

Sure, police get training on dealing with people in mental health crises. And it is a good day when police are able to stop a suicide. But an estimated 5,000 suicides a year are completed by people with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, many of them untreated. Some people die in standoffs or shootouts – including some law enforcement officers.

Expecting police to be there in time to avert suicide isn’t really good public policy. Helping people before a standoff or suicide is far better for everyone."

My take is two-fold: One, I'd say that law enforcement in that Maryland county needs to make sure that they've got one officer on every watch in each precinct trained in CIT. To not have that training on the streets strikes me as a field day for a trial attorney. Also, TAC's post (they never use names for their posters, nice and Orwellian that) betrays a lack of understanding of how CIT has actually proven out over the last 10 years in major cities across the country. In Seattle, where it's been deployed since 1998, it has saved the lives of both citizens and cops.

Two: I think TAC is opening a second front in its advocacy for outpatient commitment or forced medication or whatever you want to call it. I won't be surprised if I see something along these lines cropping up in their campaign soon enough: "Sometimes suicidal people duke it out with the cops. Or they climb out on bridges where officers must go. Or sometimes they have weapons and the police must shoot them. People like this need our help. We must pass new laws so that any parent of a child or adult child can force their offspring into treatment if they say anything remotely suicidal-sounding. We only want to help."

And mommy and daddy must always be redeemed, even if it means that their offspring lead a medicated half-life.

Or am I being too cynical here? Either way, I'm not going to parse their argument, although I'm pretty certain that they don't know a whole lot about policing. Besides, I already see massive holes in their rhetoric, but that's for another day.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at May 26, 2006 12:03 AM
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Comments

Parental redemption. Nice provocative thought. I would hope redemption of self on the backs of sick people is not going to become the standard for treatment of mental illness. I also am quite sure it is not always parents who seek treatment for people. Not all children/ and or adult aged children have parents. The more provocative thought would be any person who hears suicidal talk could be drawn into that arena. In a way, it already is there, within the school system,(as one example) teachers can make quite a call to stir that pot.Human redemption might be the broader brush stroke on that statement. I certainly don't want to be redeemed so to speak in that forum. Forcing medication is a barbaric thought, and just another way to control the mind, of innocent people, yes, riding on the redemption bus of do-good, feel- good for one's self. A simple bumpersticker approach could be "keep America safe, drug em up and lock em up". No, I don't think it is parental redemption being sought in this arena, it is political redemption, which is hella more scary. I also do not place much credence for TAC posts that are not signed. When I see that, they lose me on anything they say. They are self-promoting, and have an agenda that needs to be stopped. The level of consciousness a person has within their innerselves can self heal. Sure we can be on medication and live a good life. Who says it has to be less. I feel that to suffer is the only way a human being can grow into who they truly want to be. Self taught, "CBT" is absolutely possible. Angst promotes growth, if one is looking to grow. "I'm a dreamer with nothing left to dream. Trying to tear a hole in the seam of reality."~(from "what a sight"/matchbook romance/Voices) What is real? the dream? or reality? or the reality of a dream?

Posted by: Stephany at May 26, 2006 05:36 AM

"From a marketing perspective, it may be necessary to capitalize on the fear of violence to get the law passed." - D.J. Jaffe, 1993, launching a campaign that is now the TAC. ew.

Posted by: Lily at June 5, 2006 08:09 PM

Dawdy wrote:
"Two: I think TAC is opening a second front in its advocacy for outpatient commitment or forced medication or whatever you want to call it. I won't be surprised if I see something along these lines cropping up in their campaign soon enough: "Sometimes suicidal people duke it out with the cops. Or they climb out on bridges where officers must go. Or sometimes they have weapons and the police must shoot them. People like this need our help. We must pass new laws so that any parent of a child or adult child can force their offspring into treatment if they say anything remotely suicidal-sounding. We only want to help."

Exactly what he is telling people in person at speaking events. He's on the campaign trail already, and the people are listening to him, and finding him to be a compassionate advocate.
Who's going to stop this train? Is anyone else afraid their mental health is going to be government owned and ran?

Posted by: Stephany at July 2, 2006 12:01 AM

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