Common Mental Health Crisis

Common mental health crisis presentations police officers will most likely encounter in people are problems with mood and energy, problems with thinking and psychosis, and problems with personality and coping. They are also likely to encounter people that have chronic problems with memory, thinking, and behavior, and problems with anxiety. Other crisis signs include not being able to take in information, inability to pay attention, interacting outside of your reality (hallucinations or delusions), excessive energy, and inability to maintain safety. More signs of crisis are impairments in judgement, poor impulse control, and behavior not being goal-oriented. Officers should always pay attention to a person's non-verbal cues.
Different mental illnesses present different symptoms. In cases of psychosis or "thought disorders", the most common symptom is an individual has lost contact with external reality. They are very delusional despite proof to the contrary and typically experience hallucinations. Delusions are firmly held false beliefs, and hallucinations are sensory perceptions unrelated to external stimuli. Hallucinations can be auditory, visual, and tactile. A person may also taste or smell something that is not real. People experiencing psychosis or a "thought disorder" are unable …show more content…
Schizophrenia is a very complex brain disease and causes a person to have a lot of cognitive problems. It is one of the most debilitating of all the psychiatric illnesses known. There is a loss of normal behaviors and a person experiences recurrent psychosis. People diagnosed with schizophrenia may hear voices. Auditory hallucinations are very common in schizophrenia. If an officer comes in contact with someone who is schizophrenic, it is okay to ask the person about any voices they may be hearing and to ask, "what are the voices saying?" This can be beneficial when trying to understand how to help that