Police and the mentally ill

Police and the mentally illA Wall Street Journal article (With ‘Reality Visors’ Officers Try New Tack to Face Mentally Ill) was mainly encouraging. Police are learning to deal effectively and compassionately with the mentally ill rather than using aggressive techniques that are inappropriate and sometimes spark violent reactions. But I was a little surprised to read about what officers in Phoenix are up to:

[Police officers] …conducted home visits with… mentally ill residents to make sure they were attending therapy sessions, getting medical care and taking their medication. They urged the homeless mentally ill to move to shelters and voluntarily accept help for their illnesses… They even drive some patients to doctors’ visits.

Somebody in Phoenix should wake up and hire some psychiatric nurses to do home visits. Using police officers for that job is costly and ineffective.