Comments for The Safe Approach Weblog

Comment on Homeless Day by Janus

Janus — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:08:48 +0000

Too many NIMBYs, as well. And too many excuses for them to use as roadblocks. Everybody wants something done, but they want somebody else to be doing it, and preferably not within sight or earshot.

Comment on Homeless Day by cuhulain

cuhulain — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:56:52 +0000

Dear Prin:

Thanks. Vancouver is progressive in many ways, but one way that it is not is in the lack of resources available for treatment.

Charles

Comment on Homeless Day by prin

prin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:54:09 +0000

that’s awful, charles. i thought vancouver was the ultimate progressive city! great post!

Comment on Dealing With Stalkers by cuhulain

cuhulain — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:50:21 +0000

Dear Chimera:

You simply would not believe how many bogus 911 calls we receive at ECOMM in the course of a night. The’re accidental, certainly, but there are so many that it seriously impairs our ability to deal with real emergency calls, because we are spending so much time calling back to thoughless people who have:

1) Left their cel phones unlocked, chucked it in their pocket/backpack/purse and wandered off. I deal with dozens of calls a night where we are listening to people partying in some bar or restaurant or chatting with friends in front of the TV while sitting on their phone, tying up the 911 emergency lines.

2) Leaving their cel phones laying around where young children can play with them. Most people in Canada don’t realize that even though a cel phone may no longer be activated with the local cel provider, as long as it has a battery in it it must, by CRTC regulations, be allowed to call 911. I’m constantly finding myself talking to children who are playing with their parent’s old cel phone. This can be a real nuisance, because the child tends to keep dialling and call again, and again, and again….

If you accidentally call 911 by land line or on your cel phone, DO NOT HANG UP. Stay on the phone and the 911 call taker will deal with it quickly. If you realize what you’ve done and hang up in embarrassment, then you’ve just complicated the process because that call taker must then take the time to call back to ensure that it is not an emergency, which takes much longer. If you turn off the phone to avoid dealing with the call back from the call taker, you’re going to discover a police officer knocking on your door to make sure that you are alright. This, of course, reduces the number of cops that are available to take real emergency calls.

Accidents happen, and those of us managing the 911 lines understand that and aren’t going to give you a hard time when it happens. But we would really appreciate the public taking every precaution to reduce unnecessary 911 calls.

Comment on Martial Arts Training For Social Workers by cuhulain

cuhulain — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:34:39 +0000

In military and police training officers and soldiers are exposed to pepper spray and tear gas. The reason for this is to show them that these force options are simply a pain compliance tool. You can motivate yourself to work through the pain and keep on going if you need to. You see this all the time in domestic violence and/or child abuse scenarios where the authoriites decide to apprehend the violent spouse or remove a child from the situation. You often find yourself facing a very goal-oriented person (“What do you mean you’re taking my husband/wife/child?”) That’s what I mean by goal oriented.

Regards
Charles

Comment on Dealing With Stalkers by Chimera

Chimera — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:57:45 +0000

“Program 911 on your cell phone to speed up emergency response.”

The local emergency response people are now running ads, telling people NOT to program 911 into their cellphones! It seems that a great percentage of calls going in to the center are purely accidental — they sat on their phone, or the dog toothed the speed dial while “fetching” it, or something.

Comment on Martial Arts Training For Social Workers by Chimera

Chimera — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:44:04 +0000

I knew about drug addicts and mentally disordered people being virtually immune to pain, but I had no idea about what you call “goal-oriented” people. Do their goals need to be emotionally (subjective) based, or do intellectual (objective) goals also qualify?

Comment on Dealing Safely With Emotionally Disturbed People by cuhulain

cuhulain — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:00:49 +0000

I’m surprised to hear that, Frank. Most police agencies these days work closely with local mental health authorities to deal with such issues, because they have come to realize that dealing with such mental health issues greatly reduces the crime rates. The MHES unit that I used to work for went out several times a year with professionals from several agencies to locate and assess homeless people to get those who needed treatment and housing the services that they needed. Have you contacted your local mental health authorities to see if they are aware of the problem? If they can get this person certified it will make the job that the police have in this case much easier.

I’ve put an article discussing police response systems on the blog today as a result of your comment. Thanks for giving me the idea.

Charles Ennis

Comment on Dealing With Stalkers by Ogden

Ogden — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:31:18 +0000

Cuhulain wrote:

“I’d caution you to be very careful indeed about letting your clients track you down like that. ”

Thanks for the word of caution. After 30 years of in-patient and out-patient practice, including patients who have murdered, I think I’ve learned a little something about human nature.

My “knee-jerk” comment makes no assumptions about police creating donnybrooks. I have the greatest respect for the police, and was the psychotherapist to a major metropolitan police department for years. My comment is meant to remind that relationship and skilled assessment is the key to action in a therapeutic relationship, and that not all “stalking” is stalking.

Comment on Dealing Safely With Emotionally Disturbed People by Frank Peoples Sr

Frank Peoples Sr — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:01:49 +0000

Tell me this,
You will see on my link that there is a very dangerous woman who is loose in our town who has severe mental illness. She has jumped people, stabbed people, threatened her mother, but she still manages to sneak by the cops and denies treatment.

Right now she is homeless and could be anywhere hiding out, ready to pick fights with people.

I have posted as many flyers, video warnings, what else can I do? The cops can’t do anything.