mycrofft
Still crazy but elsewhere
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http://www.modbee.com/2011/03/20/1608468_p2/modesto-shooting-victim-idd-as.html#
Short of it: young man (19 y/o male) told friends he was going to kill self. They called LE, who took him to mental facility. He escaped, swam a dangerous canal, started trying to break into houses. Broke window on one, allegedly tried to hurt himself with the glass, was trying to get into the house, when an off-duty CHP officer confronted him and then had to shoot him. DOA.
This applies to EMS how? Make sure you have a coherent plan as to how to handle a mental patient who is a threat to him or her self. No blanket statements; get step by step, who-does-what protocols. People who threaten to harm themselves have a statistical propensity for harming others as well as or instead of themselves; as Schneidman and Farberow said, there can be a fine line between suicide and homicide. People thinking themselves to be in danger due to mental illness are not (necessarily) stupid and can be very uninhibited in their efforts to survive.
This time the patient broke away from a treatment facility. Don't let that read "ambulance", and don't let the casualty be you , your partner, or bystanders.
PS: read the letter to the paper about the incident. Geeez...<_<
Short of it: young man (19 y/o male) told friends he was going to kill self. They called LE, who took him to mental facility. He escaped, swam a dangerous canal, started trying to break into houses. Broke window on one, allegedly tried to hurt himself with the glass, was trying to get into the house, when an off-duty CHP officer confronted him and then had to shoot him. DOA.
This applies to EMS how? Make sure you have a coherent plan as to how to handle a mental patient who is a threat to him or her self. No blanket statements; get step by step, who-does-what protocols. People who threaten to harm themselves have a statistical propensity for harming others as well as or instead of themselves; as Schneidman and Farberow said, there can be a fine line between suicide and homicide. People thinking themselves to be in danger due to mental illness are not (necessarily) stupid and can be very uninhibited in their efforts to survive.
This time the patient broke away from a treatment facility. Don't let that read "ambulance", and don't let the casualty be you , your partner, or bystanders.
PS: read the letter to the paper about the incident. Geeez...<_<