World Mental Health Day and My Experience

Today, on World Mental Health Day, I want to speak about something deeply personal — about what my daughter and I shared at last night’s Longview City Council meeting. (See the video at the end.) We raised the issue of police brutality, CPS misconduct, and the government’s role when hate, a lack of compassion, and misunderstanding take root.

When those in power carry bias, when they treat people in crisis like criminals, families suffer. Communities suffer. Mental health crises are not the time for force; they are the time for mercy, love, empathy, and kindness.

My priority is to ensure that at least 30% of mental health professionals are employed by (or embedded within) police departments. This is not about weakening the police—it’s about ensuring that what happened to me and my family does not become the norm.

Supporting Data & Context

Here are facts and findings that show why integrating mental health workers into emergency response, especially with law enforcement, is so crucial:

• Extent of police encounters involving mental health:

  • Estimates suggest that 7% to 10% of police-citizen encounters involve a person with symptoms of mental illness. ICJIA+2NCBI+2

  • In jurisdictions with over 100,000 people (i.e. many U.S. cities), about 7% of all police contacts are with persons believed to be mentally ill. Doc McKee+2COPS Portal+2

  • Sometimes these incidents escalate because officers feel unprepared or unequipped. Police1+2NCBI+2

• Fatal encounters & use of force:

  • Between 25% and 50% of fatal law enforcement encounters involve people experiencing a mental health crisis. Law Journal for Social Justice+1

  • A study of nine U.S. police departments found persons with serious mental illness made up about 17% of use-of-force cases, and about 20% of suspects injured during police interactions. BioMed Central

  • In California, more than half of serious non-fatal injury incidents involving police also involved reported behavioral health conditions; about 30% involved a reported mental health condition. For fatal injuries, mental health conditions showed up in over 40% of cases in prior years, rising toward 60% in 2022. Public Policy Institute of California

• Risk & disparities:

  • People with untreated mental illness are, on average, 16 times more likely to be killed by police than people not in that condition. TIME+1

  • Officers themselves often report feeling inadequately trained, saying they are ill-equipped to handle mental health crises. Police1+1

Why Employing Mental Health Workers in Police Departments Makes Sense

• De-escalation & saving lives: Mental health professionals can help calm situations, provide alternatives to force, and reduce the chance that an encounter turns tragic.

• Specialized knowledge: They understand psychiatric symptoms, crisis behaviors, trauma response, and what kind of support is actually helpful—rather than simply trying to force compliance or assume criminality.

• Redirecting resources: When mental health experts respond to crisis calls (or co-respond with officers), it can free police to focus on public safety tasks, reduce costs from use of force litigation and medical care, and reduce the number of jailings that stem from untreated mental illness.

• Building trust in communities: When people see compassion, not punishment, when in crisis, trust in government and law enforcement improves. That strengthens community safety overall.