Lack of facility creates crisis for cops
JANESVILLE — Rock County’s lack of a medical facility for mentally ill patients in crisis is creating a “crisis” for some police officers.
A subcommittee of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council has taken up the issue and wants to find a creative solution to the problem.
When a mentally ill person is suicidal or poses a danger to others, police officers are usually the first on the scene to assess him or her. If the officer decides the person is dangerous or in danger, the officer places a “51/15 hold” on the patient, Janesville Police Dep. Chief David Moore said.
That is not a criminal charge.
But before the patient can be admitted into a treatment facility or assessed by Rock County Crisis Intervention, which is not a treatment facility, a doctor must determine the patient has only a mental health issue and no other medical issues, Rock County Human Services Director Charmian Klyve said.
Rock County Crisis Intervention provides emotional support to callers with a drug, alcohol or mental health emergency. Crisis workers help callers access services or treatment, according to a center brochure.
The Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison doesn’t want to accept a patient and then find out he or she is having a heart attack or bleeding internally, Klyve said.
That’s where the problem comes in for the police officer.
The officer escorts the ill or suicidal person to a local hospital for medical clearance from a physician.
It might take four to eight hours to get that clearance, said Evansville Police Lt. Art Phillips. The officer waits the whole time with the patient, Phillips said.
In a community such as Evansville, where only one officer usually is on patrol at a time, it means no one is patrolling the streets for all or part of a shift, he said.
Losing an officer is tough even for bigger communities such as Janesville.
“We need to stay with this individual because they are in our custody, and we’re responsible for their welfare,” Moore said. “While we need to stay with the individual, we don’t have a lot of extra police officers. To lose an officer for an entire shift affects us.”
Phillips is a Rock County Board supervisor and a member of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
After a discussion last week, members of the council’s process and opportunities subcommittee will start looking into finding a short-term fix to keep officers from having to wait hours at a hospital.
Dane County has a mobile crisis unit, and Klyve plans to talk to representatives of the unit to learn how it works.
The subcommittee will meet again at noon Thursday, July 19.
Jun 4, 2008 at 10:23 a.m.
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Unfortunately what ends up happening once these people are seen is that they get cleared unless they are almost dead because the mental health/medical facilities don’t have any room for them or even want to deal with them. So what they do is clear them, and the Officer ends up taking someone to the jail who really should not be there since they don’t have the training/staff or facilities to care for these people.
Jun 4, 2008 at 8:42 a.m.
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how sad your officers have to wait so long. where i work, we try and get them in and out as quickly as possible for a medical clearance
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