Mental health calls fielded by Lincoln police each year almost doubled from 2001 to 2012.
The number — not including suicides or attempts — grew steadily from 1,276 in 2001 to 2,294 last year, an overall increase of 80 percent, according to Lincoln Public Safety Director Tom Casady.
When factoring in the city's 15 percent population growth — about 35,000 more people — during that time, the adjusted increase works out to 56 percent.
“The increase in these cases during the past dozen years has been dramatic — even when population growth has been taken into account,” Casady said in a recent post on his blog, The Director’s Desk.
In 2012, there were 30 suicides, 284 suicide attempts and 309 people taken into emergency protective custody, according to records provided by Lincoln Police Officer Katie Flood.
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Readers of Casady’s blog have blamed a variety of issues for the uptick: the sluggish economy, more people reading and posting to social media, and prescription medication side effects.
Casady, who admits he’s no expert on the issue, said it was possible community-based care and support for chronic mental illness hadn’t kept up with the need.
“What worries me is if we have more people with mental health issues that could be managed with a fairly low level of community care … but they are not able to get it,” he said during a recent interview. “Maybe we’re using the $10 solution to the $1 problem."
There's no other chronic medical condition, normally treated through outpatient care, in which the response for an acute episode is to call law enforcement, Casady said.
"Would our first impulse in the event of a diabetic reaction be to call the cops?" he asked. "Yet, this is precisely what happens with depressing regularity when a person with a mental illness suffers a psychiatric crisis."
Local mental health advocate Dean Settle shares the frustration.
“Our state has tried to do the right thing, but the need is probably greater than the resources we have today,” said Settle, former director of the Community Mental Health Center in Lincoln and current owner of Metro Gallery, a downtown art shop that features work by people with mental health issues.
Nebraska needs more community services, he said, including support people and case managers who get to know clients, check on them often and develop a relationship so people have someone to reach out to when they need it.
Now, when crises hit, police and paramedics have to step in, sometimes repeatedly.
Casady looked at the 3,547 suicide attempts reported to police from 2000 to 2010 and found 388 people tried more than once and 108 made three or more attempts. One man tried 12 times.
When it comes to mental health care, said Kasey Moyer, associate director of the Mental Health Association of Nebraska, the ambulance should be at the top of the cliff, not at the bottom.
Moyer said there were many reasons people don't seek help until there is a crisis: lack of insurance, no way to get to appointments, no money, fear of social stigma.
Two years ago, Lincoln police began making referrals to the Mental Health Association, a nonprofit organization comprised of volunteers who suffered from mental health issues in the past and now are reaching out to offer help and support to others.
As of last month, police had made 400 referrals, of which volunteers were able to contact about half, according to Sgt. John Walsh.
“They (people referred) are people that really aren’t in the throes of a really severe crisis at that point, but they are people you know are suffering from mental health issues and their life quality is not as good as it could be,” he said.
When people accept the help — 80 percent of those contacted do — their risk of being arrested or victimized drops significantly, as does the frequency of police involvement in mental health investigations, Walsh said.
Reach Nicholas Bergin at 402-473-7304 or nbergin@journalstar.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/LJSBergin.
Mental health calls a growing burden for police
Police and mental health advocates are concerned about the frequency with which officers are called to deal with mental health issues — a number that has more than doubled since 2001.
Year | Mental health calls for service | Population | Mental health calls per 100,000 population |
---|---|---|---|
2001 | 1,276 | 230,400 | 554 |
2002 | 1,236 | 233,737 | 529 |
2003 | 1,277 | 237,356 | 538 |
2004 | 1,187 | 239,417 | 496 |
2005 | 1,424 | 242,009 | 588 |
2006 | 1,529 | 244,653 | 625 |
2007 | 1,686 | 247,789 | 680 |
2008 | 1,872 | 250,939 | 746 |
2009 | 1,991 | 254,001 | 784 |
2010 | 2,039 | 258,379 | 789 |
2011 | 2,243 | 262,195 | 855 |
2012 | 2,294 | 265,404 | 864 |