{"id":402316,"date":"2017-08-06T12:17:49","date_gmt":"2017-08-06T18:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=402316"},"modified":"2017-11-27T09:30:06","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T16:30:06","slug":"police-are-on-front-lines-in-dealing-with-behavioral-health-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/08\/police-are-on-front-lines-in-dealing-with-behavioral-health-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Police are on front lines in dealing with behavioral health issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RBCQlpKMBdg?rel=0\" width=\"771\" height=\"434\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Across the country, thousands of people facing behavioral health issues end up in prisons and jails. But they often encounter law enforcement officials before that happens.<\/p>\n<p>During his many years on patrol, Lt. Shane Briscoe with the Las Cruces Police Department has been dealing with behavioral health issues. He says there are four common groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ones that we deal with are depression, bipolar disorders, schizophrenic disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar &#8212; those are the categories that we really deal with,\u201d says Briscoe.<\/p>\n<p>Briscoe says LCPD is always evaluating whether\u00a0the best tactics have been used. But he says the law enforcement community is constantly hitting the reset button in building new relationships with behavioral health providers.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this story<\/h3>\n<p><em>This story\u00a0is part of <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/05\/haussamen-discusses-investigation-of-behavioral-health-system\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a collaboration<\/a> between NMPolitics.net,\u00a0the Las Cruces Sun-News and KRWG News, supported in part <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/01\/grant-will-help-nmpolitics-net-investigate-behavioral-health-system\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by the Fund for Investigative Journalism<\/a>, to examine\u00a0southern New Mexico\u2019s struggling behavioral health system. Listen to <a href=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/krwg\/audio\/2017\/08\/AM8-4web.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an\u00a0audio version of this report<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-402316-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/krwg\/audio\/2017\/08\/AM8-4web.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/krwg\/audio\/2017\/08\/AM8-4web.mp3\">https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/krwg\/audio\/2017\/08\/AM8-4web.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIf it\u2019s a change in administration it\u2019s as if we almost have to start from square one in dealing with them again. We dealt with Southwest Counseling, there was a change there, and there are new providers that come into the area,&#8221; says Briscoe.<\/p>\n<p>He also says with new providers coming to the area, it\u2019s important to establish a relationship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery time there\u2019s turnover or change, we certainly have to make contact with them, talk about basically the rules that we\u2019ll abide by, what we\u2019re required to do by law and to just figure out a way to work together to resolve problems,\u201d Briscoe says.<\/p>\n<p>Many people experiencing behavioral health problems end up in prisons and jails instead of mental health facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Through a records request, KRWG News found that in Do\u00f1a Ana County in 2016 there were 11,081 inmates booked into the county detention center. During that same time there were 56,739 instances in which\u00a0inmates received required behavioral health services. Substance abuse services were required 10,417 times.<\/p>\n<p>Nationwide, prisons and jails are facing the burden of treating behavioral health. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjs.gov\/content\/pub\/pdf\/mhppji.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a 2006 study<\/a> by the U.S. Department of Justice, 64 percent of local jail inmates, 56 percent of state prisoners, and 45 percent of inmates in federal prisons have symptoms of serious mental illness.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Jamar Cotton with the Do\u00f1a Ana County Sheriff\u2019s Office says he sees people who may be struggling with behavioral health issues regularly. He shares a story from\u00a0a recent incident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we are on a traffic stop, this lady is walking down the street, down Picacho, and I noticed that she didn\u2019t have any shoes,\u201d says Cotton.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Deputy Cotton asked the woman if she was OK. The woman told him she was heading to a local restaurant miles away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told her, &#8220;You are going the wrong way, you are not anywhere close to where you want to be at.&#8221; So talking to her more\u2026 she starts to outburst and cry,\u201d says Cotton.<\/p>\n<p>Cotton said the woman then appeared to have different conversations going, as if she seemed to have multiple personalities. She told him she was pregnant; later he\u00a0found out that wasn\u2019t true. Then the woman took off and ran into traffic. He pursued and brought her back to his patrol car.<\/p>\n<p>She later told him she was taking medication for behavioral health issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe told me that she took medication for depression and anxiety,\u201d says Cotton.<\/p>\n<p>Cotton started his investigation into the woman\u2019s situation and found out she was a missing person.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe had been reported missing at six o\u2019clock that morning,\u201d Cotton says.<\/p>\n<p>He\u00a0was able to eventually contact the 21-year old woman\u2019s mother, who explained to him her daughter\u2019s behavioral health issues.<\/p>\n<p>Cotton says being compassionate is key to any situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t want to escalate it. You want to de-escalate it and bring them down,\u201d he says, adding that he is constantly working against the perception of law enforcement with guns and a badge to let people know he\u2019s there to help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI try to keep a calm demeanor, and try to figure out what\u2019s going on with them, reassure them why I\u2019m there,\u201d says Cotton.<\/p>\n<p>One thing Briscoe says could greatly help the community is having an operational crisis triage center. The county center has been sitting empty for years. It was built, but has never been used. Briscoe says he was involved with talks about the need for the triage center years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of talk in the past years about a crisis triage center and it being available for law enforcement as a means to almost circumvent the\u00a0need for response to our two emergency room,&#8221; Briscoe says. &#8220;That, if it ever came to fruition, I think, would be a great help.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A great help for law enforcement and, advocates say, the entire community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many people experiencing behavioral health problems end up in prisons and jails instead of mental health facilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":402324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[710,203,3281],"class_list":["post-402316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-health","tag-law-enforcement","tag-medicaid-freeze","series-distressed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}