Police department mental health specialist?

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Police department mental health specialist?

    Do police departments ever have someone on staff who is a mental health specialist? For example, if they arrested someone with schizophrenia and brought him in, would there be someone at a police department who could do an evaluation and determine that the person is indeed schizophrenic?

  • #2
    Re: Police department mental health specialist?

    Originally posted by Pasquali56 View Post
    Do police departments ever have someone on staff who is a mental health specialist? For example, if they arrested someone with schizophrenia and brought him in, would there be someone at a police department who could do an evaluation and determine that the person is indeed schizophrenic?
    I'm not an expert on police organizations by any stretch of the imagination, but most large police departments (like the LAPD) have a behavioral services division that handles the department's psychological issues (often both internal and external). Here's a link to the Behavior Science Services branch on the LAPD's website:

    http://www.lapdonline.org/inside_the...asic_view/6497

    I would imagine that, in this day and age, most police departments either staff - or have access to - someone (if not a whole department) with a specialization in psychology, psychiatry, or counseling.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Police department mental health specialist?

      I think if the suspect were not a serious threat he might be taken to the local hospital (locked ward or under guard) to be subdued (medicated). The police cannot ignore the medical/mental needs of their prisoner. If the prisoner has a wound, he goes to the hospital if the wound requires more than a Band-aid. There are no police personnel qualified to evaluate the mental health of a prisoner, and any such formal evaluation is outside their authority.

      If the prisoner were completely out-of-control, and dangerous, he likely would be transferred to the state mental institution, and treated/evaluated, until he could be arraigned in court on the charge for which he was apprehended. The institution would make a report for the court. The police are experts in crime, suspects, arrests, etc. They have no authority or skill to evaluate anyone, except as a preliminary measure to determine whether professional help is needed or advised.

      Often the mentally ill prisoner is subdued at the jail (without medication), and held over for court. The court would order a formal evaluation as to whether the prisoner understood the charges against him.

      Do you have any more facts?

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Police department mental health specialist?

        Originally posted by Scriptonian View Post
        I think if the suspect were not a serious threat he might be taken to the local hospital (locked ward or under guard) to be subdued (medicated). The police cannot ignore the medical/mental needs of their prisoner. If the prisoner has a wound, he goes to the hospital if the wound requires more than a Band-aid. There are no police personnel qualified to evaluate the mental health of a prisoner, and any such formal evaluation is outside their authority.

        If the prisoner were completely out-of-control, and dangerous, he likely would be transferred to the state mental institution, and treated/evaluated, until he could be arraigned in court on the charge for which he was apprehended. The institution would make a report for the court. The police are experts in crime, suspects, arrests, etc. They have no authority or skill to evaluate anyone, except as a preliminary measure to determine whether professional help is needed or advised.

        Often the mentally ill prisoner is subdued at the jail (without medication), and held over for court. The court would order a formal evaluation as to whether the prisoner understood the charges against him.

        Do you have any more facts?
        While I agree that a prisoner/detainee would be transferred somewhere with better facilities/services/equipment when needed (and that in most cases, they leave it up to the more experienced opinion of professionals who work in the mental health field primarily), I disagree with your blanket statements that:

        There are no police personnel qualified to evaluate the mental health of a prisoner, and any such formal evaluation is outside their authority
        and

        The police are experts in crime, suspects, arrests, etc. They have no authority or skill to evaluate anyone, except as a preliminary measure to determine whether professional help is needed or advised.
        A degree or certification is valid regardless of the "day job" of the person holding the credential. A police department psychologist is no less a psychologist than one in private practice or operating out of a medical facility... and the police do employ psychologists. They may specialize in law-enforcement related situations and crises, but they've also received the education and training necessary to - like any psychologist - analyze and diagnose a disorder.

        Treatment and the value of an expert opinion in court, of course, are other issues. I merely wanted to point out that there are police officers who have the authority and skill to evaluate someone, just like there are movie producers who have the authority and skill to practice law because they went to law school and passed the bar, politicians who have the authority to broker a residential property sale because they have a real estate license, and receptionists who have the authority and skill to notarize documents or handle tax returns because they've been licensed as a Notary Public and/or CPA.

        Education, authority and skill aren't always bound solely to professional experience... especially where licensing and credentialing are concerned. If you receive the education and pass the certifications to be a psychologist, you're a fully-licensed psychologist whether you work at your own practice, a hospital, a police department, or in a department store.

        Great point about the process of seeking outside treatment/evaluations when necessary, though. Bringing someone with a mental disorder into the precinct would most likely be a far more complex assessment than the desk sergeant with a psychology degree saying, "Yep, schizophrenic!"

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Police department mental health specialist?

          We're talking prisoners not police employees. A police psychologist evaluates and counsels police personnel, not prisoners. Prisoners have rights.

          Police experience job-related stress, and are provided counseling by trained therapists. Other workplace incidents warrant counseling. If a prisoner bit the cop's ear off, the cop, not the prisoner, would be counseled. The prisoner would be charged with another crime.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Police department mental health specialist?

            Originally posted by Scriptonian View Post
            We're talking prisoners not police employees. A police psychologist evaluates and counsels police personnel, not prisoners. Prisoners have rights.

            Police experience job-related stress, and are provided counseling by trained therapists. Other workplace incidents warrant counseling. If a prisoner bit the cop's ear off, the cop, not the prisoner, would be counseled. The prisoner would be charged with another crime.

            I completely agree. I just disagree with the statement that no police officer is qualified to evaluate someone. Even if they don't evaluate because of procedural or legal reasons, that doesn't make them any less qualified to do so, in the sense that they've been trained to make that assessment (even if they can't make it official).

            Going back to the OP, the answer is YES, there are people on staff in a police department who specialize in mental health. And YES, if they brought a schizophrenic individual into a police station, there would likely be someone there who could determine that the individual was schizophrenic (or at least mentally ill, a danger to himself or herself, etc.) insofar as an informal assessment goes.

            That doesn't mean that the determination would hold up in court or could be used to determine treatment or a permanent diagnosis... but the answers to the OP's questions are technically "yes."

            Of course, at this point I think more information is needed about the situation in the OP's story. If the reason for asking is because someone is needed to say, "He seems to be schizophrenic; let's keep him away from the other detainees," that's entirely different than, "He seems to be schizophrenic; let's lock him away and declare him mentally incompetent to stand trial!"

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Police department mental health specialist?

              Originally posted by Pasquali56 View Post
              Do police departments ever have someone on staff who is a mental health specialist? For example, if they arrested someone with schizophrenia and brought him in, would there be someone at a police department who could do an evaluation and determine that the person is indeed schizophrenic?
              Large departments often have their own psychological and counseling services as part of the human resources team for police employees; some also work with negotiators and in forensic profiling, but I suspect it would be a conflict of interest to have police mental health staff assessing, diagnosing or treating prisoners. I know in some jurisdictions civilian or public health professionals manage mental health issues with people in custody pre-trial but I don't know if this is universal. Corrections facilities, on the other hand, do have in-house psychological and counseling services.

              Re. the last part of your question specifically - police staff diagnosing a prisoner as schizophrenic - I think that would be extremely unlikely. However, it's common for police departments to have specific mental health professionals on call to deal with prisoners and these professionals are called in as required.
              "Friends make the worst enemies." Frank Underwood

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Police department mental health specialist?

                As said above, it depends on the size of the department. Ours was smaller, so if we had someone who need psych evaluation, we called DHS (Department of Health Services) who sent out their on-call mental health worker to do an evaluation. They merely determine if the individual is a threat to themselves or others and don't give a diagnosis.

                If someone is deemed a threat, they are transported, via ambulance, to the hospital to be admitted to the psych ward. If not, they are transported to County for lockup.

                In either case, the suspect is out of the police departments hands within hours, generally.

                How it works in larger departments, I have no idea.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Police department mental health specialist?

                  Originally posted by Pasquali56 View Post
                  Do police departments ever have someone on staff who is a mental health specialist? For example, if they arrested someone with schizophrenia and brought him in, would there be someone at a police department who could do an evaluation and determine that the person is indeed schizophrenic?
                  for storytelling purposes know that when police officers bring in someone who's acting strange their first assumption is that they're under the influence of drugs or alcohol. their response also depends on what they brought that person in for. they could just send them directly to the department of mental health where legally they can hold them for 3 "involuntary" days.

                  but like someone says prisoners have rights. they will automatically be assigned a public defender who can order an evaluation and/or suggest hospitalization.

                  also know that having schizophrenia does not absolve you of wrong-doing. so even if the police knew someone had it (and they probably would for repeat offenders or someone with a history of hospitalization in the system) if that person did something violent to another person they probably wouldn't send them to a hospital with non-violent patients. i'm sure larger jurisdictions have special wards for prisoners with mental health problems.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Police department mental health specialist?

                    If you want to get specific in most jurisdictions it it's the police dept that is the subject of your question but the sheriff's dept. Seems like a trivial distinction but it's not. The sheriff is county level, police is typically city/municipality. Most police depts don't have jails. Those are usually run by the county, thus the sheriff's dept.

                    The police bring a suspect the the jail and if there are medical issue then he is evaluated by a doctor or a nurse. If there are mental health issues then they may be seen by a psychiatrist (not a psychologist - psychologists can't prescribe meds so unless the jail goes into the business of "feel better" counseling it would be silly to employ a psychologist). Generally, though, they will be tossed in solitary unless their behavior is dangerous or self-destructive.

                    Callous as it may seem, the criminal justice system just isn't that concerned about mental health issues. As some previously correctly pointed out - you can be crazy and still be convicted and sent off to the pen. The two issues are (very simplistically put) 1. do you know what is going on during the court proceedings on a very basic level (competency) and 2. at the time of the offense were you capable of recognizing that what you were doing was wrong. If you are mentally ill but knew it was wrong to kill someone and went ahead and killed someone then you can't be found NGRI (not guilty by reason of insanity).

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Police department mental health specialist?

                      on that NGRI issue. they recently pointed out (b/c of that tuscon shooting) that a few states do not have this status at all. in arizona if you're mentally insane and commit murder then you may go to a psychiatric hospital until you're cured but then you must go to prison and do your time. no getting off with a temporary insanity defense.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Police department mental health specialist?

                        I met an NYPD (detective grade) officer who had a masters in psych and was working on his PhD -- the NYPD was footing the tuition bill. His main job was evaluating the stress cops were under. (There was an interesting way he did this - but I think it could be a future hook to use in a script so I will keep it to myself.) However, because of his educational background they often used him in interrogations to figure out what mental state they were dealing with in certain arrests. I don't think he "treated" prisoners but he did provide a cursory take on their state of mind.
                        Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Police department mental health specialist?

                          Police are able to make a decision on whether to take someone who is acting strangely and may be a threat to themselves or to others to the hospital and hold them for a certain amount of time (Baker Act here in Florida) for evaluation.

                          Now if a person has been arrested for a crime, let's say murder, the accused is taken to jail and booked on the charges of murder and put under suicide watch. When the accused makes his/her first appearance, the Judge will make the decision on whether or not to have a Psych evaluation done. A good example to look at is the Andrea Yates case in this scenario. She was not immediately taken to a mental health facility. She was taken to jail and booked on murder charges. They have psych wards in jail that deal with prisoners like this also. I want to say a State ordered psychologist is assigned to the accused by the Judge. I do not believe that the police department has anything to do with it. They simply arrest the individual, investigate the crime, and everything else is up to the courts.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Police department mental health specialist?

                            Hopefully this will help... at least this is how it works in NY for whatever that's worth.

                            Generally the person arrested is evaluated by psychologists/psychiatrists employed by the city/county to make determinations with regard to whether the accused at the time of the act (not before or after) lacked substantial capacity to engage in criminal conduct by reason of a recognized mental disease or defect. By 'lacking substantial capacity' it means the person arrested lacked substantial capacity to know or appreciate either:
                            a. the nature and consequences of his/her conduct; or
                            b. that his/her conduct was wrong.

                            Then after the govt shrink finds that the person did not lack this capacity (which happens in most cases, go figure) then the defense has an opportunity for an evaluation by someone they hope will say the person could not have formed the requesite intent to commit the act.

                            Perhaps the most fascinating part of criminal law practice...
                            Seven years dungeon --- no trials!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Police department mental health specialist?

                              Originally posted by NikeeGoddess View Post
                              on that NGRI issue. they recently pointed out (b/c of that tuscon shooting) that a few states do not have this status at all. in arizona if you're mentally insane and commit murder then you may go to a psychiatric hospital until you're cured but then you must go to prison and do your time. no getting off with a temporary insanity defense.
                              You're absolutely right and that brings up a very good point. Every state is sovereign when it comes to the legal systems -- they may as well be individual countries on this issue. Pick the state your story takes place in and research the laws and departments in that state. Otherwise you'll end up with this illogical mismash of legal and jurisdictional garbage that doesn't fit anywhere.

                              My comments more or less fit under common law, which most state statutes use as a starting point, but as far as I know every single state's criminal law is statutory -- common law only goes so far.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X