BLOOMINGTON - Minnesota police chiefs report a rise in the number of calls for service where individuals are in a state of emotional crisis.
More than 100 police chiefs and law enforcement leaders from across the state as well as mental health advocates and educators joined together in Bloomington to address mental health issues.
Sue Abderholden of the National Alliance on Mental Illness said, “Again if we just did what President Eisenhower suggested that we have a community mental health center for every 50k people, that every hospital has an inpatient psyche unit.”
“I don’t want to see another task force on mental health because all we would have to do pull together those recommendations for all these years and do them.”
Which resonates with law enforcement.
“We don’t have a safe haven for these folks in many cases to go to where they can be cared for and follow up services will be provided.” Explained, Mike Goldstein Plymouth Police Chief.
“We understand we have to wear many hats… The problem is the hat that we wear when we are dealing with folks in a mental health crisis, we probably don’t have all the tools we need to interact effectively.”
Chief Goldstein said he would like to see similar resources for mental health issues as there are for other medical disabilities or conditions.
“We need to shed that stigma, we need to talk about it more comprehensively and it is a medical condition. It is no different if your heart is not working right – your brain is not functioning right and we need to provide those same services.”