Santa Cruz law enforcement tackles mental-health issues

Santa Cruz Sentinel - February 9, 2004

By SHANNA McCORD Sentinel staff writer SANTA CRUZ - When a 911 call comes in the middle of the night, Sheriff’s Sgt. Christine Swannack usually knows what to expect. Typically, she said, it’s a situation similar to one last year where a Felton woman was found walking around at 3 a.m. with a dead sparrow cradled in her hand, desperately asking for someone to perform CPR. A neighbor who heard the woman screaming and making threats had called police. "She was dressed and well-kept, but something was going on," Swannack recalled. "Something was not right." Unable to immediately deem the woman a 5150 - code for someone who is a threat to themselves or to others or unable to care for themselves - police left. An hour-and-a-half later, police returned when the woman was seen walking down the middle of Highway 9, still holding the dea bird. "This time we could arrest her because she was a threat to herself," Swannack said. Dealing with mentally unstable people is a significant part of any law enforcement officer’s job in Santa Cruz County; about 150 are taken into custody every month. Most officers, though, aren’t adequately trained or knowledgeable about how to best handle such precarious confrontations, Swannack said. In many cases, she said, the person is put in handcuffs and carted off to County Jail, which has a designated mental-health unit, or the county mental health unit at Dominican Hospital. "It’s not always appropriate for them to go to jail," Swannack said. "They’re suffering from an illness." Understanding disorders The people in Santa Cruz inflicted with mental-health disorders such as severe depression, bipolar illness and schizophrenia were foremost on Swannack’s mind when she chose to participate with 100 others in the Mental Health Summit last October. "I’m passionate about this subject," she said. "This is a part of the population not well-served traditionally." The summit, which drew experts from various fields including law enforcement, medical professionals and community leaders, was the beginning of a collaborative conversation that has a long way to go before participants reach a conclusion. "The point of this has always been, the system is inherently broken and we all know it," said Paula Comunelli, project director of the Mental Health Summit. "There is good work being done. There’s just a lot more to be done." The summit meeting was designed to be the start of a long-term plan that would draw on various experts to help address the problems associated with mental-health disorders. Paul Bellina, manager of the county’s mental-health program, said he’d like to see law enforcement officers team up with psychiatrists when responding to an emergency in which the person may be mentally unstable. It’s what Bellina calls "a mobile psychiatric emergency response team that gives the person the protection of law enforcement and the eyes of a mental-health professional." An officer and psychiatrist in the field would allow for better assessment of what’s causing the person’s behavior, he said. In the case of the Felton woman with the dead bird, Swannack said, had a psychiatrist been along, the situation could have been better assessed and resolved sooner. "This would enable you to say this person is not on meth," Bellina said. "There are a lot of people that wouldn’t need to go to the locked facilities." Since the summit in October, participants have formed teams to address issues such as community education, the criminal justice system, housing, access to services and a Web site for mental-health advocacy. A post-summit meeting is scheduled for April 19 and a second summit is planned for October. "We’re not going to be able to save every person," Comunelli said. "But we have to do what we can do." Contact Shanna McCord at smccord@santacruzsentinel.com.