Cops are not trained in best practices to talk to or help
someone suffering with mental health issues, let alone in an emergency room,
and often arrest or hurt people they perceive as threatening—or worse.
One study found that people with mental illnesses are 16
times more likely to be shot by police, despite a robust body of
research showing that the mentally ill are no more dangerous than the
average person.
As Vermont’s Department of Mental Health noted in a report from April of this year, federal requirements
mandate only hospital staff are permitted to handle patients in psychiatric
care. Outside contractors, like private security officers, need to be trained
and “under the supervision” of hospital staff when handling patients. And
police officers “cannot lay hands on an individual who is committing (or has
committed) a crime in the emergency department unless they are going to arrest
and remove the individual,” the report said.
But those standards have been ignored in Vermont hospitals
in recent years.
One 2016 hospital report describes how a patient seeking
treatment for anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts was tackled by police
with an arm-bar takedown; the officers then handcuffed the patient’s arm to a
bed. Five officers were called in 2018 to intimidate a patient who was
refusing to accept medication for their bipolar disorder. And in two different hospitals last fall, county sheriffs called
by staff Tasered two separate patients seeking treatment for mental health
issues, neither of whom were in police custody at the time. Only five hospitals
nationally were cited in 2018 for the improper use of Tasers; the two in
Vermont were the only ones outside major urban areas.
Doctors and nurses in hospitals are allowed to use physical
force to calm down a patient who is seeking treatment for mental health issues
and is getting agitated or violent. But these medical techniques for restraint,
like soft straps to keep a patient in a bed or wheelchair and injectable
sedatives, have strict regulations for use. Most techniques police officers use
to restrain suspects—like handcuffs, Tasers, and tackling moves—are not
considered medically appropriate for a person suffering from mental health
problems.
Restraining a mental health patient “is a medical
intervention in a hospital,” said Suzanne Leavitt, the state survey director at
Vermont’s Division of Licensing and Protection, which licenses and certifies
health care organizations in the state.
“If you have the police come in and handcuff somebody, that
is not a medical intervention,” Leavitt said.
Vermont and national regulations say that while hospitals
may call police for patients committing crimes in ERs, police must arrest the
patient and take them into custody after treatment—not act as a security force.
“The hospital cannot call the police and say, we need your
help restraining this guy, hold him down please, so we can give him a shot,”
Leavitt said.
When hospitals don’t set clear boundaries with police,
hospitals can get in trouble with national regulators. Hospitals with multiple
bad reports risk losing funding and certification from national and state
governments—-a potentially devastating blow to rural populations where medical
access, and especially mental health access is already thin on the ground.
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