ESCONDIDO: Cops 'hear voices' in mental illness simulation
By COLLEEN MENSCHING - Staff Writer | ∞
Escondido Police Officer Chris Leso tries on a Virtual Hallucination machine during a class on schizophrenia that help them better handle schozo subjects in emergency situations. Photo by Waldo Nilo, staff photographer 
Dr. Nancy Soloman a psychaitrist from UCSD during a class for Escondido Police Officer on schizophrenia that help them better handle schozo subjects in emergency situations. Photo by Waldo Nilo, staff photographer ESCONDIDO ---- Cops in uniform don't make a habit of telling people they are scared.
When it comes to dealing with schizophrenic people, though, Dr. Nancy Soloman said, that is exactly what officers should do.
"The most important thing is to tell them how you feel, because they can read your body language like nobody else," she told a group of Escondido officers Wednesday.
Soloman, an Escondido psychiatrist affiliated with UCSD, spoke to officers taking part in a high-tech simulation intended to give them an idea of the hallucinatory sights, sounds ---- and even smells ---- that untreated schizophrenics experience.
One by one, after donning an audio-visual headset, officers sat in front of a computer and took a virtual four-minute bus ride to a pharmacy. The friendly bus driver quickly became threatening, then helpful, then threatening again. Fellow passengers appeared and disappeared. A menacing bird lunged repeatedly at the bus window.
And all the while, bodiless voices mocked and berated the rider, or warned him, "They're coming for you."
In a separate scenario, the viewer wanders around a house listening to several bickering voices and "hallucinates" ---- thanks to an odor function in the simulator ---- the smell of poisonous coffee.
"Holy smokes," Officer Chris Leso said. "That's what they live in constantly?"
Officer Lou Shaver took the same trip.
"I can't imagine what two blue suits coming onto a bus would do to someone like that," he said.
The $25,000 simulator is a portable version of an 11-seat simulation theater created by the pharmaceutical company Janssen.
Edward Thompson, the department's Psychiatric Emergency Response Team clinician, worked with Soloman to bring the Mindstorm simulator to the Police Department.
Thompson said police academies don't spend much time educating officers about mental illness.
"They are trained in show of force, understandably," he said.
But, according to Soloman and Thompson, a variety of factors mean mentally ill people and police officers frequently cross paths.
Many patients don't have strong family ties or access to quality therapy, they said. Those who are under a doctor's care may opt to self-medicate with alcohol and illicit drugs because the side-effects of prescription drugs make them feel worse.
And if patients act strangely in public, people who encounter them are more likely to call police.
Experts estimate that up to 75 percent of schizophrenics experience auditory hallucinations, often in the form of voices.
"Realize that, if they're hearing voices in their head, you might have to get in line," Thompson told officers.
Ideally, Thompson said, police called to respond to a schizophrenic person would be able to take that person to a mental health clinic. Often, she said, emergency room treatment or arrests are more feasible options.
For schizophrenics who routinely decline treatment or refuse medication, those might also be the best options, Thompson said.
"Sometimes the best therapy is to arrest these people," said Thompson, adding that the arrestees will receive treatment while jailed. "That's not inhumane."
Related link:
http://www.janssen.com/janssen/mindstorm_video.html
Contact staff writer Colleen Mensching at (760) 739-6675 or cmensching@nctimes.com.
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Roberto wrote on Apr 30, 2008 7:20 PM:Who speaks for the mentally? No one, they are left to fend for themselves by a sick society that could care less and less about the quality of life. While law enforcment needs to be trained to deal with the mentally ill, we as society need to put more emphasis on treatment, facilities for those who need them and not jail every mentally ill person already living in their own living hells.
How About wrote on Apr 30, 2008 10:04 PM:training officers to treat everyone professionally, regardless of presumed gender.
Ezee wrote on Apr 30, 2008 11:01 PM:Amen Roberto. It seems there are many people in jail who suffer from mental illness by no fault of their own. Think about it, it could happen to you. I have a family member who has schizophrenia. He was a straight A student in HS until he became affected.
i agree wrote on Apr 30, 2008 11:29 PM:with both.. it is very difficult dealing with some who are mentally ill. it is a necessity that society treat people equally for most cases but for those who are mentally ill, u will be making a wrong choice arresting them, unless they become violent. most mentally ill only become violent/loud if they feel they are being threatened. *i have witnessed this as a customer/pharm tech/student or just in daily life..
wrote on Apr 30, 2008 11:32 PM: no threat to society,though people think you are,so they call police for suspious reason, which is false. cause individual is in there own world.not theres. they notice things or hear things is true,which then goes to where they trust no-one,put yourself in there shoes how would you feel.so if your so perfectly normal go donate some time with the disabled
John wrote on May 1, 2008 6:32 AM:Is LE even trained in what a "5150" (W & I code) is, and what the criteria is to be "given one"?? Do they understand that a lot of 5150's are not truly mentally ill, but have drug-induced psychosis? Of course in most LE cases, it's "subdue", and then figure out the resistance later.
I can hear Police now wrote on May 1, 2008 6:57 AM:I am dealing with a schizophrenic person, no need to send back up me and the Batman can handle the situation.
Dont think about it the wrote on May 1, 2008 2:13 PM:government has men in black, flying in black helicopters. The only way to be safe is to wear an aluminimum hat made into a pyramid, it works, Al Gore wears one to stop global warming.
The NCT hasnt been wrote on May 1, 2008 2:57 PM:publishing all of my blogs, this can mean only one thing, they are out to get me.
My opinion wrote on May 1, 2008 5:19 PM:I am a family member of a bipolar man who was tazored by police officers and killed after he was trying to kill his wife. I don't agree with "wrote". The mentally ill can become violent. Hopefully with this advanced training officers will now be able to understand and deal with the situation in a compassionate way instead of a violent one.
To John wrote on May 1, 2008 9:03 PM:As a matter of fact, police officers in CA are very well versed in W&I 5150. Often times, officers will not 5150 a person because they do not meet the criteria, to the dismay of the person who called 911. But that's how it has to be. People who commit crimes are arrested. If they have mental problems as well, then they are treated in jail. People under the influence of drugs also get arrested, but not everyone who exhibits symptoms is under the influence at the time. Some have long lasting effects from long-term drug abuse.
treated in jail wrote on May 1, 2008 10:04 PM:you mean verbally abused by "deputies." The deputies at county jail are certainly NOT professional, and do not seem to posses as much as a HS education. Without provocation, they are spontaneously rude and just as foul as the drunks they incarcerate. Their behavior is childish and disgusting, rather than professional at all. I shudder at the thought of how they would "treat" anyone with a mental illness.
esteban wrote on May 2, 2008 7:40 AM:Is that how you were treated mr. "Treated in jail"? How many times have you been locked up? Better change your ways sonny.
well all be wrote on May 2, 2008 11:48 PM:anyone with a mental disorder feel people talk about them,look starring at you ready to call police for no reason cause you look suspicious for some stupid reason or is it paranoya
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