Understanding in Action: First responders learn how to respond during encounters with a mentally ill person
During his walk around a Nashville neighborhood, a police officer spots a disheveled young man sleeping in the alleyway of an apartment building. It’s a dangerous spot for sleep — cars speed through the narrow alley regularly, and early the next morning a garbage truck will be pulling up to empty a nearby dumpster. So the officer shakes the young man awake, to get him to move along, ideally to a shelter a few blocks away. The switch to wakefulness does not go well. The young man grows increasingly agitated, pulls away from the officer and begins to argue. A situation like this can escalate quickly when a person with mental illness is behaving erratically and a law enforcement officer […]