There exists a gray area when it comes to Law Enforcements involvement when dealing with Mental Health.
Law Enforcement Officers have the responsibility of wearing many different hats while on the job. And the hat of psychologist is one of them in many cases. Officers are called many times to deal with individuals who have mental health issues, but due to the gray area can not intervene unless they witness that person’s behavior being a threat to themselves or others. In many cases officers rely on other avenues, such as arresting the person on “breach of peace” or “suspicion of public intoxication”. These are used many times in attempts to get individuals into the system in order to get them help. But sadly the system fails these individuals many times.
Law Enforcement Agencies can not even pull up Court Orders of Commitment due to HIPPA Laws on privacy. This hinders Officers and Agencies from ensuring that the individual is where they are suppose to be, in order to get the help they need.
It is believed that especially in today’s world Law Enforcement Officers should receive more training on how to deal with Mental Health issues as they are usually the first to be called in situations dealing with this subject. This would benefit the individual and the officer to avoid any escalation of a situation.
Many Law Enforcement Agencies have begun to join with Mental Health Groups to provide this training and create individualized units to deal with these, but more is need. In most cases these units work only with Counselors and not Psychologists which is felt to be the need.
In one known instance Law Enforcement was called and informed that an individual was on a Court Order to be residing with a relative until placement could be found. This relative took the individual back to her mothers and from there was placed back with a male individual, who contributed to the issue. The Law Enforcement Agency stated they could not pull up this Probate Court Order due to these HIPPA Laws and could only do a well check, unless the court itself ordered her removal.
These road blocks prevent individuals and Law Enforcement Agencies from providing the aid needed on both sides. And allow situations to become more dire to the point of suicide in many cases.
South Carolina’s Mental Health Crisis is well known but unfortunately is underfunded and many individuals fall through the cracks or are hindered by red tape.