Colorado failures include treatment and training

State receives Dplus grade in latest report card

The recent fatal shooting of a young, unarmed Broomfield man who had a mental breakdown hours before being killed by Westminster police highlights how cracks in the mental health care system combined with underresourced law enforcement can have deadly outcomes, mental health advocates say.

A lack of treatment oversight by state courts, difficult access to outpatient treatment and hurdles for family members getting their loved ones help make Colorado a “poster child” for failures in the mental health care system, according to a national organization dedicated to researching mental health care issues.

“We are in the midst of a mental health crisis in this country and it is showing itself in every venue it is able to,” said John Snook, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center. “We treat mental illness differently than we treat any other illness.”

The Treatment Advocacy Center gave Colorado a Dplus grade in its latest statebystate mental health care report card.

Across the country, barriers such as stigma and a lack of treatment options have kept people with treatable diseases away from the care they often need, Snook said. Although people with severe mental illness make up only 4 percent of the U.S. adult population, they are nearly 25 percent of people fatally shot by police, according to research done by the center.

Police officers are often the first to be called when someone is having a mental health crisis. But over the past few decades, officers received little training on how to approach people with severe mental illness, according to Reid McGrath, a sergeant with the Englewood Police Department who has worked in law enforcement for more than 30 years.

The mother of Birendra Thakuri, the young Broomfield man fatally shot by Westminster police, often called the police, pleading with them to get her son help with his mental health issues.

The day of Thakuri’s death, the Broomfield Police Department put out a notification across the state that it was trying to locate him, according to Chris Terry, a commander with Broomfield police. Thakuri, a Nepali native, was fatally shot later that night after an altercation with a Westminster officer a few miles from his home. For Snook, it is a story he hears far too often.

Thakuri’s case also reflects many of the issues found in an Advocacy Treatment Center report on police shootings. The 2017 report found that people with severe mental illnesses were 16 times more likely to be fatally shot by police than others.

Police officers receive “exactly the opposite” training they need for handling people with mental illnesses, Snook said.

The strong, commanding voice that officers are trained to use can quickly escalate interactions with people who have a severe mental illness, according to Snook.

The lack of “obvious warning signs” for someone with a severe mental illness or key indicators for their specific illness compounds the challenges for law enforcement, Snook said.

Police need to adjust their ap

proach based on each person’s distinct mental illness, said Terry, the Broomfield commander who has done training on how to approach people with mental illness. Someone in the middle of a breakdown, whether brought on by mental illness or drugs, might react more aggressively without realizing police officers are approaching. People suffering from suicidal thoughts or depression might need to be approached in a way that builds rapport between the officers and the person, Terry said.

“There is a huge difference between someone who is bipolar than someone who is autistic,” Terry said.

The police standards for putting someone on a mental health hold or taking them to the hospital require the person be an imminent threat to themselves or others. This leaves a big gap for people who might still need medical attention, but don’t meet the standard where officers can step in, Terry said.

One way Broomfield, Englewood and other police departments around Denver are tackling the problem is by bringing trained mental health clinicians on duty with them. This helps slow down potentially dangerous situations with the guidance of professionals. The licensed mental health professionals can also help form a bridge between the health care system and the people law enforcement regularly interact with, said McGrath, the Englewood sergeant who also is trained on responding to mental health calls and works with Englewood’s coresponder program.

Police officers’ roles “have really changed” over the past several decades, McGrath said. Police officers are now on the front lines of the mental health care system, he said.

Being on the front lines comes with risks. The phenomenon known as “suicide by cop” occurs when someone intentionally provokes law enforcement officers to fatally shoot them.

Last year in Denver, two armed RTD security guards came across a man lying face down in the grass. The man, who lived a troubled life of violence and addiction, was despondent after the death of his grandmother, his family said. He pointed a handgun at the officers, causing them to fatally shoot him. Family members told The Denver Post last year they believe the incident was a suicide by cop.

While law enforcement continues to implement new training and coresponding programs, the challenges of dealing with mental illness start long before police officers are called to a scene, Snook said.

“The reality is there is no way to train out of this crisis,” Snook said.

Almost 300 people are waiting in jail to receive mental health treatment across Colorado. Many were arrested for lowlevel crimes and are awaiting necessary treatment just so they can become competent enough to stand trial.

“There could not be a more stark canary in the coal mine to explain how the system is broken,” Snook said.

The issue of jailing people who have mental illnesses is not new. Early last year, a commission established by Gov. John Hickenlooper recommended that the state stop using jails to house people placed on involuntary mental health holds. In 2014, The Denver Post chronicled the lives of people impacted by the failures in the mental health systems. While there has been progress, from increased training of police officers to deployment of mental health clinicians, many of the systemwide problems remain.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Snook said.