Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Riesel Police Chief Danny Krumnow started off his workweek with a frustrating experience that kept his town without a local police presence for most of a day.
On Monday and early Tuesday, Krumnow and his officers spent 17 hours trying to get medical help for a local man who was suicidal. Most of that time was spent waiting in a local emergency room for the man to be assessed and then admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
Because Riesel has a small police department — Krumnow and three other officers — the city had to rely on the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office to handle calls for help during that time. Luckily, it was an uneventful day, Krumnow said, but he was irked that the department’s time was monopolized by a non-law enforcement matter.
Similar scenarios play out about once a month, Krumnow said, leaving the city without the protection of its police department. The waits usually aren’t as long, he said, but officers generally have to be out of the city for at least four hours on each mental health call.
“It’s an extreme burden,” the chief said. “It continues to drain us.”
That was then, this is now
For years, stories like Krumnow’s were the norm in local law enforcement circles. Now, however, there is a resource that can prevent most such situations. The problem is, not everyone in the six Central Texas counties where it’s available knows it exists.
Krumnow sure didn’t.
The Heart of Texas Crisis Care Center, 1200 Clifton St. in Waco, is a 24-hour, one-stop shop for people experiencing a psychiatric crisis. Law enforcement personnel and the public can bring people with acute mental health issues there for evaluation and treatment.
“We’re definitely picking up (volume-wise),” said Tom Thomas of the Heart of Texas Region Mental Health Mental Retardation Center, which runs the center. “But we still have situations like this one come up.”
The center was launched in the fall, in large part to take pressure off law enforcement. Mental health officials statewide agree that neither people with psychiatric issues nor public safety is best served by police officers acting as de facto mental health workers.
The other impetus for the center was to provide the community with a broader array of services. Before, about the only option for someone in crisis was to be hospitalized, causing some people to put off care, Thomas has said. With the center, people who are not critically ill can receive residential treatment outside of a hospital setting.
For agencies that use the center, it has proved helpful, Thomas said. Before, the average length of time officers had to wait with someone in the emergency room for a mental health assessment was three hours and 15 minutes, he said.
With the center, the average wait is one hour and 15 minutes — a 62 percent decrease.
Also, since the center opened, Thomas said, there has been:
* A 5 percent decrease in the number of mentally ill people booked into local jails.
* An 18 percent decrease in the number of people admitted to Waco’s psychiatric hospital, the DePaul Center.
* A decrease of nearly 6 percent in the number of days local residents are in state mental hospitals.
As of two weeks ago, the center had served 581 people, Thomas said. About 216 went through triage after being brought in by a loved one or law enforcement official. The vast majority were brought in by law enforcement, he said.
Sgt. Bill Jones, who heads up a mental health unit at the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office, said the center has been a real help.
Not everyone can be taken there, though. For example, children and people with medical issues, such as having cut themselves or taken medication to overdose, must be taken to the emergency room.
“But for the most part it works out,” Jones said. “. . . It has helped for sure.”
cculp@wacotrib.com
757-5744
Comments
By Ras
May 14, 2009 12:29 AM | Link to this
This is another example of King Larry Lynch holed up in Fort Lynch. He should be facilitating all agencies in the county working togehter. Instead he has the county build him a fortress to hide in. Word is he is not even going to put the name on the outside of the building to lessen interruptions by the pesky public. What do you expect when you elect a pencil pusher who never served a felony warrant? McLennan County needs leadership! Not someone to hide out at their office. Dirty Harry is right. Larry could not carry Jack Harwell's badge, much less wear it.
By Red Herring
May 13, 2009 11:32 PM | Link to this
Officer Long is that you?
By Brandon
May 13, 2009 10:48 PM | Link to this
Yeah it drained them, from sitting watching HWY 6 and doing traffic detail, WOW how concerning. Deal with it and move on, its great we are going to have a crisis center but come on reducing the number of mental ill and helping those people but we need way more than just one center.
By Dirty Harry
May 13, 2009 10:31 PM | Link to this
Your article missed the boat. I didn't see where you interviewed any Waco Police officers. They tell me the system is not only broken, it just don't work. Our police officers shouldn't have to babysit all these people. Where are the medical personnel? Where are the doctors? I guess if you don't have insurance, no one wants you and you go to Austin State Hospital. Waco officers tell me that they make several trips out of the county daily to take these people to mental institutions such as Austin, Big Spring, and other places. Who is protecting the citizens when the officers are gone? More than a majority of these people are in Waco. Waco officers tell about other agencies dumping these people off at the hospitals in Waco and leave them there. Waco is stuck with taking care of them. Some have been from out of the County. You are right j. By the way, when Harwell was Sheriff, this didn't happen. When Larry Lynch made Sheriff, he dumped it all on Waco. I guess he doesn't realize Waco citizens pay county taxes also. Shame on the medical profession and our politicians for placing the burden on law enforcement. I am just glad that they don't put people in jail for being crazy, I would be in cell 1.
By null
May 13, 2009 5:59 PM | Link to this
Couldn't the hospital security have guarded this guy?
By Why
May 13, 2009 10:04 AM | Link to this
Why did the entire police force have to babysit the man. Could not one officer have handled it.
By j
May 13, 2009 7:39 AM | Link to this
If the police department thinks it has problems with this, try being a single mom with three other kids. Their father is only interested in an obligatiory visit once a month. One night I waited all night from 7pm until just after 7 am to get my child into DePaul.I rushed home and got the other kids to school by 8. At 9am DePaul called wanting me to start making major decisons. I told them I had been without sleep and would not discuss anything until after I had some sleep. I was told to be at DePaul at 3pm. When I went at 3, they told me that they wanted to commit my son to a year in the state hospital and pushed papers in front of me. When I refused to sign them , they called CPS, citing my 9am refusal to discuss the case as one reason that I was an unfit parent. They told me that a hearing would be the next morning at DePaul and to be there at 7:30 am. Around 8 am, the next morning(still sleep deprived because I had spent the night crying) they got a judge and severed my parental rights, making DePaul managing conservator, and then they signed the committment papers to ASH. Three days later a CNA called and said to come and pick up my son. I told her there must be a mistake, citing all the activity of three days prior, she said, she knew nothing aobut that and that she would call me back. She called me back, said there was no mistake, to come and pick him up. From that phone call until this day, there has never been an explanation given, however I have a good idea. He had previously been on medicaid, but I had recently put him on my new jobs insurance. The new job insurance(I found out later) had started on the day that DePaul released him. Isn't it funny that an unfit mother can redeem herself in just three days without any therapy, punishment or nothing?? Further puzzling is how a child described as most likely irreversibly mentally ill, a danger to himself and society,needing at least a year in a state mental hospital, can completly be healed in just three days.
The wait is terrible, but no matter what happens with my son, he will never go there again. Also on the previous trip to DePaul, his release papers were signed around noon and he was told to go and watch TV and wait for mom. The problem was that nobody ever called to tell me he was being released. He sat there through a shift change and the new shift did not know he had been released. A little after 6 when I came for the regular family visit, my child became hysterical, clinging to me, crying. He had sat there for hours thinking that I had abandoned him. He said he had wanted to talk to the staff and ask why but he was so sad, he couldn't.
Who is abusive and neglectful??
If the police have trouble with the system think of the parent with no connections.
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