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Police trained to de-escalate mental health calls

Cape Cod Times - 1/26/2017

Jan. 26--HYANNIS -- Mental health problems run like a thread through many of the cases police are called to investigate, from incidents involving the homeless and drug addicts to some cases of domestic violence, according to Eastham Police Chief Edward Kulhawik.

"Many times if you really drill down, mental health is the root of many issues," Kulhawik said Tuesday at the first Capewide police training on mental health issues sponsored by NAMI Cape Cod & the Islands.

Too often, confrontations with mentally ill individuals become physical, he said.

Nationally, 73 percent of "use of force" cases by police involve people who have psychological or psychiatric issues, he said.

But Cape police are working to change the statistics, Kulhawik said.

The five-day training program that started this week at the Cape Codder Resort & Spa and concludes Feb. 2 includes representatives of the state police and nearly every police department on Cape Cod, said local NAMI Executive Director Jacqueline Lane.

The three dozen participants spent Tuesday and Wednesday meeting people from organizations that serve the homeless, mentally ill and veterans as well as a psychiatrist from the Cape Cod Healthcare'sCenters for Behavioral Health, representatives of the state Department of Mental Health and people with mental illnesses.

During the training provided by the Community Crisis Intervention Team (CCIT), participants from Taunton watched a film on PTSD and wore headphones to listen to an audiotape of the type of voices people with schizophrenia hear in their heads.

And they received lists of resources and phone numbers for organizations including Samaritans of Cape Cod & Islands, Gosnold on Cape Cod and the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod.

The goal of the training -- which was funded by the Weny Charitable Trust -- is to increase understanding of mental health issues, provide resources for officers and teach de-escalation techniques, Lane said.

A woman who did not want to be identified on Wednesday told attendees that an officer trained in de-escalation techniques once helped her when she had a psychotic break while attending a concert in Mansfield.

The woman said she screamed at the officer not to come near her or she'd kill him after he found her hiding in the bushes, holding the neck of a broken bottle.

The officer told her his name was Mike, squatted down and calmly asked for the bottle -- which the woman said she didn't even realize she was holding.

"I told Mike my name and from then on he used it, like I was somebody," the woman said.

At his urging the woman said she climbed out of the bushes and got psychiatric help.

"My life could have taken a vastly different path" if the officer had responded differently, she said.

Mary E. Munsell, of Hyannis, who heads a peer-to-peer program for people with mental illness, told participants that the times she was handcuffed, restrained and brought to the hospital were psychologically traumatizing.

"As a community, it is time to change the way the system works," Munsell said.

Police officers at the training said they often feel called upon to be social workers.

When the movement to release psychiatric patients from state hospitals started decades ago, the goal was to have them living in the community with a wide range of supports and services, Lane said.

But the promise didn't pan out, and too often people with severe mental illnesses wind up living on the streets or with stressed-out family members, situations in which police are called to address what are actually mental health crises, Lane said.

"The mental health system is fragmented," Lane said. "It's a broken system."

Police in small areas can take up to two to three mental health calls per shift, Lane said.

Despite the large number of police and fire departments, the Cape feels like one big community, said Steve Turner of CCIT and the Taunton police.

The goal is for the Cape to have its own trainers and put as many police officers through the program as possible, Kulhawik said.

CCIT training provides a good opportunity to pool resources and also learn what's missing in community responses, said Keith Bourdon of CCIT Taunton.

"It's utilizing the community as a whole," Bourdon said.

One of the issues that concerns police is what happens after they convince a person to go the Cape Cod Hospital emergency department.

Several police officers said they worry people who pose a danger to themselves are released without being treated.

"I've never had a follow up phone call from a charge nurse" or other hospital staff, said Chatham police Sgt. William Massey.

When he asks if a patient has been released, he's told it's private information, Massey said.

"It is frustrating," he said.

Dr. Daria Hanson, medical director and chief of the Cape Cod Healthcare Centers for Behavioral Health, said she wants to improve communications with police and suggested a committee be established to do so.

"Let's all work together and come up with a system and make it how we want it," Hanson said.

The training by CCIT Taunton already has made a difference, Lane said.

When two women called NAMI with concerns about a younger and agitated relative with mental illness who announced she was traveling to their house from Connecticut, a NAMI representative told them to call the Dennis police and ask for an officer trained in CCIT.

NAMI officials also called the police to give them a heads up about the situation, Lane said.

The officer met with the younger relative, de-escalated the situation and convinced the woman to go to the hospital, she said.

"I hope you go away inspired," Lane told CCIT training participants. "There is help out there."

- Follow Cynthia McCormick on Twitter: @Cmccormickcct.

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(c)2017 Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.

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