Everyday.
There is much truth in this statement."one of the biggest burnout factors in medicine is Stupid Admin Bullshit, mostly in the form of excessive charting requirements for legal/billing purposes"
Everyday.
There is much truth in this statement."one of the biggest burnout factors in medicine is Stupid Admin Bullshit, mostly in the form of excessive charting requirements for legal/billing purposes"
Facts matter...Feelings Can Lie
Everyday.
When I worked patrol I would encounter at least one person with mental issues each shift. Most of those encounters were violent.
Since working dope almost everyone I encounter has some sort of mental health problem but the encounters are rarely violent. The difference is that when I encountered them on patrol it was because they were having some sort of crisis. Now when I encounter them it’s because they are getting their “medication”. It is unreal the number of people with severe mental problems self medicate and the substances they use for treatment.
I arrested a young woman a few times dealing with severe anxiety who shot up meth then chased it with a bunch of benzos. When I asked her why she used that particular combination she said “so I can feel normal.”
Street drugs are bad shit, no doubt; but anecdotally, alcohol seems to be the #1 drug of abuse that brings people to the ED, and is used by legions of people to self medicate themselves into an early grave. I've seen a lot of people die in the Dept from booze, both quickly and slowly (our frequent fliers). It's wretched.Originally Posted by KPD
Also, meth never EVER looks like fun. Seen lots of people do the meth dance while cuffed to a bed. Totally do not get it.
It is rare to look at the CAD screen (any time / any watch) and not see PD and/or FD on a mental health related call. The problem has increased about a million percent since the construction of rapid transit light rail.
And how.
Esophageal varices get quite the reaction by the patients family members when they start to rupture at home. Then again, when you start launching blood out your gab like it's going out of style....
Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
This is a total aside, but variceal banding was invented here at U Colorado. Also the site of the world's first liver transplant. Coincidence? I think not...
Last edited by Nephrology; 10-22-2017 at 11:52 PM.
A-fucking-men. As someone in the position of having been both corporate and, now, LE, I agree with this from both perspectives. Salty, crusty, old corporate consultants are as prevalent as salty, crusty, old cops. People will always be people.
In my newbie experience in LE, I can easily say I interact with mentally ill people daily, often multiple times daily. I just had a case with a woman who was black out drunk and (IMHO) insane due to her intoxication level. +1 to the previous statement of self-medicating with alcohol. I'm sure with my crazy lady, she was self-medicating some other, underlying issue.
I've dealt with all age ranges with mental illness. With younger kids (say 6-12) I take statements of "behavioral disorders" with a block of salt. I think I've only seen one legit case of BD. The rest have been just shitty parenting with the expectation that cops can fix years of bad parenting in one 5-15 minute encounter.
Aside--Nephrology, holy-effin-wow to that Willowbrook documentary. I've never heard of that before. Just wow. Thanks for sharing.
Last edited by Foxy Brown; 10-23-2017 at 01:51 AM.
Thread drift for a minute.
I work almost every clandestine lab in my jurisdiction. That would be almost 300 labs in a 10 year period with most of those being methamphetamine labs. I begin every interview asking the suspect “how many days have you been awake?” I usually either get two days or five days for an answer. Hardcore users typically answer seven to ten days. The record answer in my interviews stands at fifteen days though. Hallucinations are big issue after about three days without sleep.
The meth dance is an interesting thing to watch. I have hours of videos where people are doing all sorts of things in the interview rooms. Yoga is popular. So is batting around a piece of lint, cup or water bottle. Batting them around like a cat playing with a toy.
I felt the need to share. I was working this night. As a senior officer, FTO w/Trainee I got to handle calls for service for our jurisdiction, while half of my squad got loaned to the surrounding agency for crime scene security detail....
Here we have a mental health patient trying to get help, obviously entering crisis based on several baseline changes that those familiar with him recognized. Commitment order signed. Served after a PIT on a motorcycle, the only "good part of the story. For those of you who have not been through ALERRT, or CRASE, no need to name the guy, the media names him enough in the links. The victims deserve to be remembered more than the suspect.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18127174/n.../#.We8I9FtSzmE
I believe the Dateline video is available on line. It was used in my CIT update a couple years ago, and it actually did not suck. Of course knowing several people involved, and being a shoulder for a couple of guys to cry on may have shaded my perception.
As an aside, the survivors:
https://www.abqjournal.com/629146/im...s-rampage.html
It is my understanding that the hospital involved, which has one of the better psychiatric units, has a gag order in place for all employees, and the cretin's medical records are no longer kept in the hospital's record system. Employees have been threatened with termination for breathing anything about this case. It seems the lawyers get the gold star here, for protecting the hospital.
pat
Last edited by UNM1136; 10-24-2017 at 04:55 AM.
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