05/15/2024
MENTAL HEALTH FAILURES LEAVING AN IMPRESSION
I will remain relentless with continuing to shed light on our failures in addressing the mental health crisis in our nation as long as we underdeliver services to those in crisis and their loved ones. These failures are at every level and within every system.
Every day I go into my jail, and witness the latest new committals who, but for their mental health crisis, would otherwise not be incarcerated. I see them in all phases of crisis. I see them in desperate need of specialized mental health care and stabilization.
Just this past Friday one such young lady became a guest of ours, in obvious mental crisis and exhibiting unusual behavior. She had shown up at the emergency department of a local hospital and instead of care they discharged her and eventually charged her with trespassing. She went for help and got anything but. Add criminal charges to her mental health crisis and now we have added gas to the flame.
Into our care she falls. Our folks do the best they can, all with great compassion and dignity. But there is only so much they can deliver. Finally, yesterday, Monday, at 5 p.m. we were able to secure a Temporary Detention Order (TDO) for her.
Just after 6 p.m. they arrived at Chippenham Hospital, where they waited with her. She was in crisis, and she waited, and she waited for a bed to gain the medical clearance she needed to access care at a forensic hospital. Twelve hours later, she was still waiting, our two deputies and the female now upset and agitated. Our deputies attempted to de-escalate her, but she ended up taking a bite out of our deputy’s arm. (Photo below).
Another example of law enforcement officers, not mental health professionals, placed in a position to administer to someone with serious mental health issues during a crisis. In crisis people are in survival and can often be violent and unpredictable. This is not the role of law enforcement. Well, it shouldn’t be but since closing our mental institutions and psychiatric hospitals in the 80s because it “wasn’t right to criminalize mental illness”, our only alternative is to now incarcerate them in a jail. The irony is not lost on me.
I have now reached a point with my frustrations and with these failures in the system that I am throwing in the towel and raising the white flag of surrender! Daily our jail is flooded by people suffering from mental illness, some in severe crisis. My inability to gain any traction to have them diverted to the proper place so they can get competent timely help is beyond frustrating. I have accepted the fact that our jail is now the Chesterfield County Psychiatric Hospital.
I concede. I am now begging for resources to assist my jail staff to be able to deliver the care people need. I need certified psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, case managers, and certified peer recovery counselors and more. I need them today. If we are going to convert our jails into de facto psychiatric hospitals, then let’s do it right and do it now.
We keep talking about the mental health crisis we have in this country. We are failing those who suffer from mental illness. We are failing all that love them.
Epilogue: The female that was in mental health crisis and bit my deputy, well she is still in crisis, and still waiting for a bed, over 24 hours later. And my deputies? They are still with her, still trying to deliver competent, compassionate care even though this is not their area of expertise. We are losing this battle, but it is people who struggle with mental illness that are the true victims. Send help, send it NOW.
