Community Groups Work to Provide Emergency Medical Alternatives, Separate From Police

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Community Groups Work to Provide Emergency Medical Alternatives, Separate From Police

Monday, 14 September 2015 00:00
By Candice Bernd, Truthout | Report


When Jens Rushing was working as an emergency medical technician (EMT) for a 911 service in one small Texas city, he was dispatched on a call where he witnessed a man suffering during a mental health crisis. He remembers how the police officer who accompanied him wanted to cuff the man's hands behind his back and force him, face down, to the ground, until he "calmed down."

&quot The officer was) completely unaware of the threat of positional asphyxia, of which people die," Rushing told Truthout. "We had to argue with him to get the patient away from (the police), and let us (EMTs) do it our way, chemically sedating the patient rather than physically restraining the patient, and actually tending to them as a patient, rather than as a person committing the 'crime' of having an acute psychotic episode."

Rushing says that during his time as an EMT for this small Texas city, police officers were dispatched with him on almost every call, sometimes becoming unnecessarily confrontational and problematic - especially, he said, on calls in which patients were struggling with mental illnesses. In February 2012, he left that city to work for 911 services in Arlington, Texas, for a few months. Now, he works as an ambulance EMT paramedic for a Texas hospital he prefers not to name.

Though Rushing says there are occasions when having cops arrive first to secure the scene and guarantee paramedics' safety can be useful, he says police can and do make unstable situations worse. He told Truthout he's witnessed several officers physically and verbally abuse people while working closely with them in his role as an EMT. .................(more)

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32782-community-groups-work-to-provide-emergency-medical-alternatives-separate-from-police