Some signs police look for in psychiatric crises
By The Associated Press, Associated Press
Apr 10, 2014 5:50 AM CDT
In this image taken from video on Jan. 15, 2014, from left, Lower Merion police officers Edward Sarama and Robert McGuire try to talk to Lower Merion officer Matt Dougherty, seated right in blue, who is pretending to be mentally ill, during a training simulation at Montgomery County Emergency Service...   (Associated Press)

Police officers who receive crisis intervention training are taught how to recognize when someone with serious mental illness might be having a psychiatric crisis. Considering the overall circumstances, police look for these behaviors in a subject:

— Behavior that doesn't fit the circumstance (example: laughing at a funeral)

— Non-verbal and easily distracted

— Bizarre and disjointed thinking (delusions, hallucinations)

— Suicidal

— Normal coping skills are failing or not evident

— Unaware of self; dirty, disheveled, malodorous

— Unaware of surroundings and possible risk to personal safety

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Source: Donald Kline, Montgomery County Emergency Service in Pennsylvania

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