# Dealing with the mentally ill on patrol



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Part 1: Signs, symptoms & strategies*

By Dr. Laurence Miller 
Like it or not, in almost every community there are citizens with one or more kinds of mental disorder, many of them homeless, and most of them not receiving any effective treatment. Dealing with these individuals is a necessary part of police patrol work. Many officers actually feel less comfortable handling mentally ill citizens than they do criminal suspects because the latter, ironically, are often more predictable and more clearly responsible for their behavior than the former. There also remains the socially stigmatized, general "creepiness factor" of the mentally ill which most people, including most cops, share.

Nevertheless, surveys show that most officers would welcome special training in dealing with mentally ill citizens. Accordingly, this 4-part series will provide insight into the variety of symptoms, syndromes, and disorders that officers are likely to encounter in their patrol work. I'll also provide you with some practical strategies for dealing with mentally ill citizens in a way that preserves the balance between respect for individual rights and dignity, and enforcing the law and maintaining social order within the community. I like to tell the officers in my training courses that they're already the best "practical psychologists," because they understand and utilize, on an intuitive basis, much of the information that I discuss in my more clinical-sounding lingo. But hopefully, gaining a little more formal diagnostic insight should help put many of these behavioral syndromes in a clearer context, so that an officer's actions on the street can become even more effective in maintaining order, enforcing the law, and enhancing the community's overall quality of life.

Full Article: http://www.policeone.com/patrol-iss...ries-Dealing-with-the-mentally-ill-on-patrol/


----------



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Dealing with mentally ill citizens on patrol: Part 2*

*Practical Police Psychology*
with Dr. Laurence Miller

In Part 1 of this 4-part series, I discussed general signs and symptoms of mental disorder and provided some practical strategies for dealing with mentally ill citizens. Part 2 offers more specific advice for handling subjects with specific kinds of anxiety, mood, and psychotic disorders. Again, the purpose is not to be a comprehensive course in psychopathology and psychotherapy, but to provide practical guidelines for street-level crisis intervention that all officers can utilize effectively.

*Anxiety and Mood Disorders*
For most people, our normal mood is neither especially happy or sad, angry or loving, agitated or calm, but just a steady sense of what I call provisional well-being: the overall feeling that everything right now is basically okay. It's like the feeling between meals when we're neither hungry nor full, when in fact, we're too preoccupied with what we're presently doing to pay conscious attention to our digestive - or emotional - states at all. All healthy people show a range of moods, getting periodically happier, sadder, angrier, calmer and so on, in response to various life circumstances, and some otherwise normal people seem to be dispositionally predisposed to either the cheerier or more dour side of the mood spectrum. Like any trait or syndrome, it is the extremes of mood that characterize a disorder, especially when these mood disturbances impair healthy life functioning or produce unreasonable conflict with others.

Full Article: http://www.policeone.com/police-pro...-with-mentally-ill-citizens-on-patrol-Part-2/


----------



## celticsfan (Dec 18, 2007)

Oh, I thought this was going to be about interacting with alderman, city council members, etc.


----------



## rg1283 (Sep 14, 2005)

When dealing with then mentally ill TRUST your gut. I tell that to all new people when they start working at the psych hospital. Some people get too complacent. Thats when they get assaulted by the mentally ill person.


----------



## mpd61 (Aug 7, 2002)

rg1283 said:


> When dealing with then mentally ill TRUST your gut. I tell that to all new people when they start working at the psych hospital. Some people get too complacent. Thats when they get assaulted by the mentally ill person.


+1. The only time I ever took one on the jaw was from an eloped nursing home patient who was about 5' 5" and 140 lbs. He even told me to stay away or he would "sock me one". Well he did, and I ended up taking about four steps back, from a straight shot to the left cheek. That was about 1989. Never again, shame on me! He was tougher to get cuffs on than some 6'5 280 pounders. You just never know! Some V.A. and DMH/DMR cops deal with this quite often and they're good, but again, nothing works 100%.


----------



## Mitpo62 (Jan 13, 2004)

I deal with the mentally ill everyday. Uh oh, here she comes again. Yes dear, I'll be there in a just a moment....


----------



## Guest (May 25, 2008)

I've found the best way to deal with the mentally ill is to tell them they're absolutely bat shit crazy. They're so used to being patronized and pandered to, it short-circuits them and they'll usually do whatever you tell them afterwards.


----------



## 94c (Oct 21, 2005)

mpd61 said:


> +1. The only time I ever took one on the jaw was from an eloped nursing home patient who was about 5' 5" and 140 lbs. He even told me to stay away or he would "sock me one". Well he did, and I ended up taking about four steps back, from a straight shot to the left cheek. That was about 1989. Never again, shame on me! He was tougher to get cuffs on than some 6'5 280 pounders. You just never know! Some V.A. and DMH/DMR cops deal with this quite often and they're good, but again, nothing works 100%.


That explains why none of your posts ever revolve around police work.


----------



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*P1 series: Dealing with mentally ill citizens on patrol*

*Part 3: Personality disorders and substance abuse* 
Parts 1 and 2 of this 4-part series dealt with patrol strategies for handling citizens with serious mental disorders that can impair thought, mood, or rational action. In Part 3, we deal with often less severe, but far more common, problems that affect a large number of citizens in your patrol area and that may often be associated with potentially violent and/or criminal behavior: personality disorders and alcohol and drug abuse.

*Personality: Traits, Types, and Disorders*

We all have different personality _traits_, which contribute to our psychological uniqueness as human beings; thus we say, "It takes all kinds&#8230;" But when these personal quirks begin to grate harmfully on others or significantly derail our own success, mental health clinicians speak of an individual having a _personality disorder_, which is defined as "an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment." 
Personality-disordered individuals typically show little insight into their own behavior and have a poor understanding of the adverse impact they have on themselves and others. They characteristically justify their self-defeating or offensive behavior as being due to uncontrollable fate or someone else's fault. It is the _extremes_ of their self-perception and conduct toward others that distinguish personality disordered individuals from those with more moderate personality traits and styles. On patrol, many of your interactions with these individuals may not necessarily involve potentially violent situations, but more commonly may require you to question them or order them to do some specific action, like leave an area or resolve a dispute with a neighbor.

Full Article:http://www.policeone.com/edp/articl...Dealing-with-mentally-ill-citizens-on-patrol/


----------



## rg1283 (Sep 14, 2005)

Simply put, when they are psychotic they all "look" the same. With the exception of bipolar patients (on a mood swing causing suicidal intentions). 

Bipolar patients tend to keep their hygiene up like you and I would. Skitzo are just bat shit crazy, its sad because they think what they are hearing and or seeing is just as real as the Red Sox are a baseball team. 


Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD)-is basically a brat who doesn't do anything you tell them to do, and in return burns the house down.

PTSD: Easiest way to describe this disorder is by using veterans as an example, you see something your not supposed to see, you keep having flashbacks, and reliving the situation

Reactive Attachment Disorder: Mostly found in children, this is when the child is abused to the point that they don't trust any adults. Life Span Psychology is out the window in this one.


----------

