Law enforcement gathers to discuss emergency response to suicide calls
Post-BulletinDec 16, 2019
Last week nearly 200 law enforcement leaders, mental health professionals and stakeholders from across the state gathered in
"We are very concerned about this trend and want to find solutions that save lives and prevent tragedies," MCPA Executive Director
A survey of more than 300 Minnesota police chiefs conducted by the MCPA found that nearly 65 percent of respondents said they have either changed their response to suicide calls or are considering doing so because of court rulings and the potential dangers to both the officers and those in crisis.
"There is no question that law enforcement across the country is rethinking its approach to this type of call," said
Local training
In
First to speak in last week's forum was
Focusing on the legal ramifications of responding, or not responding, to suicide calls, Daigle said law enforcement wasn't there to have the conversation because its members don't want to help their communities, but because they are put between a rock and hard place as it applies what is expected of them and what are the legal ramifications of their actions.
"It's not an easy topic to discuss," Daigle said. "The individual we are dealing with needs some type of mental health treatment and they are not going to get it from us."
Daigle told those in attendance that law enforcement can't be everything.
"And we need to make sure that we tell our communities, 'My law enforcement officer cannot be a mental health practitioner. My law enforcement officer can't be a priest, can't be an accountant, can't be all these things we have to be every day,'" he said. "I don't want more training, I want more resources."
Resources such as regional paramedics and mental health professionals respond to mental health calls with police, Daigle said.
Rising suicide rates
Suicide rates are increasing nationally and have increased even more dramatically in
"Should we be responding to suicide calls?" said Sue Aberdholden, executive director of the
Many people do not know the mobile crisis team number in their county and while crisis teams are more developed in
The adult's and children's mental health crisis response phone number for
"The issue is that everyone knows 911," she said. "We have to think about this differently. 911 operators can do the warm hand-off to mental health experts and we think they should."
Aberdholden encouraged a co-responder model in which law enforcement agencies contract with a mobile crisis team to help respond. In
"We cannot be the mental health experts in this, but we can partner with them," he said.
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