City officer honoured for intervention
DENTON MICHELSON GOT HELP FOR SUICIDAL WOMAN
Alocal police officer has been recognized for going the extra mile helping a woman suffering with mental health issues. Cst. Denton Michelson received a Chief’s Commendation during the Lethbridge Police Commission in February. On Jan. 29, Michelson responded to a call involving Peak Vocational and Support workers who were having trouble with one of their clients.
A woman was suicidal and had become aggressive. She had been taken to the Chinook Regional Hospital where a doctor deemed she had behavioural issues and declined to admit her. At that point, a staff member tried to assist her, and that is when the situation escalated.
“She assaulted the staff member,” said Michelson. “She grabbed her hair and uttered threats to her.”
Michelson was asked to escort the patient home, but he determined the woman needed to be admitted to the hospital. He asked for a second evaluation, but the woman was again declined admission.
At that point, she was arrested for assault. But Michelson said the goal was not to incarcerate the woman, but to try to find another way to get her the help she needed.
“The end goal was always to get her a 30-day (psychological) assessment,” said Michelson. “However, I’ve come to realize there is a lot of red tape that comes with that.”
The normal course of action for an assault charge may have meant the patient could end up in the Lethbridge Remand Centre for up to two months before receiving the help she needed. Instead, he got together with local community partners to bypass prolonged custody and get the woman the help she needed.
“Unfortunately, sometimes with the systems we have in place, it’s not always the best thing for certain patients or clients,” he said.
He noted in this case, the woman’s ability to heal would have been hampered by not having access to help for an extended period of time. The event is an example of police trying to solve community problems instead of simply doing what is required in the course of their duties.
“If we put in a little extra work on the front end, it may pay dividends,” Michelson said.
“I’m hoping that by having that 30-day psyche assessment, that they might be able to tweak her medication a little bit, and that she might be able to get the specialized help that she needs. Hopefully, it won’t involve the police again, and she can be happy and healthy.”
LPS Chief Rob Davis has seen similar assessment issues across the country.
“We’ll come in, and the doctors will do a 30-second triage and say, ‘Nope, there’s nothing wrong’ and let them go. And then we end up having to deal with the person again and again,” he said.
“Or worse, they are released and we don’t see them, and they end up harming themselves or others.”
He said while staff at the CRH have been generally very good to deal with in regards to helping police with patients who have mental health issues, police across the country are frustrated by the problem.
“Rarely do we get the chance to tell the whole story, and what mom and dad said, and what the workers are saying,” said Davis.
“Quite often, our demands are stacking up, so if the doctor says they are good to go, it’s on to the next (case). So to see (Michelson) step up, it showed leadership on so many levels. (The woman) could have harmed herself or others. It can be very easy to stay in our role as police officers (and move on to the next case immediately), but he had the foresight and vision to see if he connected her to proper services, he could dimminish our workload in the future and put her in a better place.”