aurora colorado — A response team rushed to an emergency call after a school employee called 911, concerned about the welfare of an absent student. “A student made some suicidal threats yesterday and didn’t come to school,” mental health counselor Tandis Hashemi told CBS News.
911 centers across the country are inundated with similar calls. A study he said as many as 10% of 911 calls nationwide could involve mental health issues. In Washington, DC, several dozen calls a day fit into that category.
Some of those calls have ended in tragedy. People with an untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to die during a police encounter than the average citizen, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center.
It’s leading some departments to change the way they handle mental health emergencies.
“A lot of times it’s not appropriate that our officers have to come to these calls, and you know, to possibly escalate the situation when it’s not necessary,” Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson told CBS News.
Aurora has two types of response teams for calls involving a possible mental health crisis. One pairs a police officer with a mental health professional. The other consists of two mental health professionals, and they only take calls when there is no apparent danger.
Courtney Tassin, the team’s program director, said being unarmed and not wearing a police uniform can help in some situations.
“We always focus on what is least restrictive,” Tassin told CBS News. “How do we avoid further traumatizing this person who is already in a very vulnerable state?”
Tassin says there were more than 800 mental health-related calls for help over a four-month period.
“We have calls for people who are in mental health crises every day,” said Sgt. Aaron Bunch, an eight-year veteran of the Aurora Police Department, told CBS News. “The police are trained to do many things. What they don’t have are master’s degrees in social work.”
The team controlling the potentially suicidal student gave up a police response. From a nearby parking lot, they caught up with the student.
“I’ve talked to mom and I’ve talked to kiddo, and we don’t have any safety concerns at this point,” said Hashemi, the mental health counselor.
The situation was resolved, with no siren or weapon in sight.
