Welcome to this impacting episode of Light ‘Em Up!
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How often do you see or hear where a person who is suffering extremely from some type of a mental health crisis which ends with the person being killed at the hands of law enforcement? Once is too many. I’ve observed this far too many times to count.
Tonight, we center our investigative journalistic focus on: Policing the mentally ill. This is one of the biggest challenges facing today’s law enforcement officers.
We’ll examine the role law enforcement plays and how their responses have life or death consequences – impacting those who are most vulnerable and in the throes of a mental health crisis which is spiraling rapidly downward.
It is important to note that the vast majority of people with mental health conditions are not violent and do not violate laws, but rather are more likely to be victims of violence themselves.
● Individuals with severe mental illness generate less than 1 in 10 calls for police service and occupy at least 1 in 5 of America’s prison and jail beds.
● In the U.S. about 1 in 5 adults (20%) suffer from a diagnosable mental illness in any given year.
● According to NAMI (The National Alliance on Mental Illness) 43.8 million adults in the U.S. experience mental illness annually.
It is imperative for you to know if your local police force has a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). CIT training is a specialized police curriculum that aims to reduce the risk of serious injury or death during an emergency interaction between persons with mental illness and police officers.
The lack of mental health crisis services across the U.S. means that law enforcement officers serve as first responders to most crises. A CIT program is an innovative, community-based approach to improve the outcomes of these encounters.
This is especially important if you, a loved one, family member, friend or colleague may suffer from depression, anxiety, PTSD, schizophrenia, or any mental health challenges or issues. This multi-layer patient-focused collaborative approach can often be the difference between life and death for the person experiencing a mental crisis situation.
In this timely and important episode, we’ll unpack:
● Riveting case studies of Joshua Barre, Joshua Harvey and Daniel Prude - all African-American men. All suffering from some form of mental health issue. All three were killed by police.
● Personal insights from having observed a mentally challenged individual unattended in public.
● An in-depth analysis of Crisis Intervention Team Training (CIT).
● The role police play in handling mentally ill persons.
● The decision-making process from a police officer’s perspective regarding mentally ill persons.
● Law enforcement’s formal and informal “options” for handling mentally ill persons.
● The factors contributing to the problem and the implications of criminalizing mental illness.
●Finally, we focus the conversation on some policy recommendations to help improve the overall process.
We’d like to thank our friends at Feedspot, as recently we were honored by being ranked #6 in their most recent poll out of the 40 Best Criminal Justice Podcasts. Visit their blog at www.Feedspot.com or simply follow this link: Best 40 Criminal Justice Podcasts You Follow in 2022 (feedspot.com)
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Executive Producer,
Phil Rizzo