Mental health and law enforcement - slowing down will be part I ...

       PHOTO CREDIT: Josh Couch, Unsplash

This story is an escalation if it's own - readers will jump in and pick sides....but the last 8 words of this one quote is worth a second take:

"De-escalation tactics are no longer suggested or preferred — they are mandatory prior to using force to effect an arrest unless it would be unreasonable to do so..."

Mental health professionals on the ground with crisis phone calls makes sense but this mental health and de-escalation campaign (and again, I'm all for it) must be grounded in the reality of science.   The brain takes over when death or the threat of death is real ... for all humans.   You cannot untrain an automatic trauma take over of the logical brain when adrenaline,  cortisol,  and norepinephrine take over during life threatening events.  This is not trainable.  What is trainable is slowing down.   I'll say that again ... what is trainable is slowing down.   

That slowing down thing is about all humans,  particularly in the US.  High stress is a disaster for everyone.   Now add unsafe careers to the mix of high stress.  Then add a 911 call for the police.   Next add a grab for a gun.  This is a horribly tragic tragic story.  And it saddens me immensely. 

To summarize this event,  by media,  political action and/or by race is only a few factors that,  to me,  makes this story even more depressing (to an already very depressed culture).  To call it a mental health only thing,  a de-escalation only thing is also yet another factor. 

In my own training of de-escalation to schools,  teachers,  to patients going back over a decade... this technique works where the safety (and the safety perception) is present. If someone, even a well trained de-escalation seasoned professional is unsafe - or perceives being imminently in harms way - deescalation techniques will fail as the literal (not fear or scared or uncertainty or even bias) biological hijack of fight/flight hormones splashes the logical brain making it largely - well - kind of dumb if you will.  

The only if I can see time and again in these kinds of stories is that ... IF EVERYONE COULD SLOW DOWN A BIT IN ALL HUMAN INTERACTIONS  this stress response will drop.  

Bias training will help.   De-escalation training will help.   Mental health will help.  

This is not an all or nothing thing.   And the saddest thing of all is that people are dying. 

https://news.yahoo.com/police-video-fatal-encounter-shows-233117194.html 

Insulin price caps - making the news: the argument is wasted money frankly.

For the past week there has been this ruckus over price caps on insulin.  The two party system is blaming the other as bad.  And the masses seem to be on board with the two party blame game.  Here's a different perspective .... there was a report that the pubs voted to block a $35 cap on insulin. Presumably the good idea here was the price cap and presumably it was from the other side ... the dems. Now consider this two party solution for a moment.  $35 for insulin isn't a really a cap; it's still a rip off.  If the pubs voted no,  and the dems put this on the table,  neither set of "representatives" were intending on making a change here.   You see,  $35 isn't the item that should have been in the law ... $8 would be reasonable (and still high frankly).  When the pubs are pushing for change and when the dems are too (#workingtogether) then real laws will be voted on.   It seems like we're continuing to look at the two parties as if they (either one) are really helping the people.     That's not a dem or a pub debate you know?  Helping people; that this is even a debate is telling too, isn't it?  Think about it... people are arguing about a cap that is not affordable for the most vulnerable and most in need... as if excluding some people from needed medical care is reasonable?!?  It's time for real change - like we the people seeing us as allies, not foes.  Narratives are just that ... pitches to convince and sway.  If you had a job for two years and you couldn't improve things ... would you still have that job?  If you had a 77,000 page tax code as your direction manual - could you even begin to get something done?  The ping pong of one side or the other bashing it out closer to elections where billions (read that again - billions) are trashed (into "the other side sucks" marketing) could be changed. Billions into people programs would destroy a BS price cap argument by both parties. Idealistically, we the people could consider that what is being placed into the media narratives continues to divide us as we lash out at one another.   Help is only helpful when it helps.  Can you and I and help? PHOTO CREDIT: Towfiqu barbhuiya, unsplash.