> It is hard to be complacent when 600,000 people who should be our patients are instead languishing as prisoners or sleeping on streets. Any success stories o

> It is hard to be complacent when 600,000 people who should be our patients are instead languishing as prisoners or sleeping on streets. Any success stories of decriminalizing — or normalizing given it’s pervasiveness — mental illness? One of the most poignant “policing” incidents I saw was at a Charlotte bus stop where the officer with compassion and humbleness was helping out a gentleman who was going through an episode — my lay person’s interpretation. I don’t know whether the officer had any training, but he was doing the best he could with whatever training he did have, in a way where the person, his meager belongings and his integrity were respected. So why do we depend on the kindness of police rather than mental health givers?