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> I found myself on top of a tall building at which point I had the clarity to figure out I really should talk to a suicide hotline. Unfortunately I didn't know the number and internet abroad was impossible to get at the time,

I'm really sorry you had that experience. And I'm so so glad that you didn't die that night.

I wanted to let you know that there is work currently happening (in the UK) to prevent death by suicide from tall buildings. For example, in Gloucestershire we're trying to get multi-story car parks to put up signs for the Samaritans as a short term measure. Longer term we want to try to improve safety of the building, perhaps though planning control, or through asking owners to retro-fit fences.

Alongside that we're trying to improve health services to be more responsive for people at risk of suicide, especially men.

(If anyone has any ideas about useful suicide prevention measures please feel free to email me via the email in my profile).

> so I ended up calling 911. Funny that, it turns out when you do that in california, you are considered a "danger to yourself" and must be arrested.

This is something about mental health that people often don't understand: sometimes it's provided by police in a police van or a police cell. They have very little training in MH. In the UK things are slowly changing. The police have a power under the MH act to detain people and take them to a place of safety to be assessed by doctors. In many parts of the country that place of safety is a police cell, but some areas have specialist Section 136 suites. (Section 136 of the MH Act).

Thank you for having the courage to speak about your experiences. It sounds like a difficult time was made very much worse - it sounds awful.

You mention the samaritans - those people are awesome and they're the ones who helped me through the tough times when I came back home.

If anyone is looking for volunteer work in the UK, especially if you have people skills, check them out.

You sound like you work in mental health. Can I ask you who you work for?

I don't work, I'm an ex-service user, currently an "expert by lived experience". I do some "service user participation work" in Gloucestershire. This is for 2gether NHS Foundation Trust (the mental health trust for Gloucestershire and Herefordshire), for the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, and for Public Health.

I'm living in Reading, U.K. and have seen these signs from The Samaritans in one of the towns tallest car parks.

I'm originally from Gloucester so appreciate what you are doing for that part of the country.

This guy Michael Brown (absolutely no relation to Ferguson) an Inspector in the UK west midlands police force has been steadily writing many intelligent things over the years about the intersection of mental health care and policing.

https://twitter.com/MentalHealthCop

https://mentalhealthcop.wordpress.com/about/how-to-use-the-b...

This is even the case in Canada though. I tried to overdose when I was 16 and someone found me. The cops were unfortunately first on the scene and started screaming at me, calling me all sorts of horrible things. When the ambulance arrived they then handcuffed me to the ambulance bed while I was getting my stomach pumped. I could barely move at that point. The cops are poorly trained and incompetent. I agree, never talk to the cops.

Canada has some of the worst and some of the best police officers that I've ever seen. City/local police: not so hot. RCMP on the whole probably the best police force that I've had contact with.

Often times, same dichotomy in the US. State Patrols are professionals, locals are bubbas.

Experiences differ. Local LEOs often play roles in crime prevention or investigation. In the states I've been recently, the state patrols are strictly revenue agencies. Life for the public would improve by their absence.

I was in an accident and emergency ward on a friday night in a central London hospital recently. Something that took me by surprise was the number of patients there in the company of the police. They were there to be treated for injuries, rather than mental health issues, but i was impressed by the conduct of the policeman attached to the very drunk guy in the bed next to me; despite the fact that the drunk guy was screaming and threatening people, the policeman patiently tried to get him to calm down, at one point promising him a cup of tea if he behaved himself, and then actually delivering on that promise.

I don't know if that was typical. I don't know if policemen treat drunks differently to the mentally ill. And god knows the Metropolitan Police are not exactly famed for their kind and gentle treatment of the denizens of the city. But in at least one case, a guy was okay.

London police has a very good reputation. I've never had any dealings with them (despite many visits to London, a nice reflection on how they typically don't bug you without a reason) but from the people that I know that live there in general it seems like they actually take the 'protect and serve' bit to heart, contrary to many other police forces the world over.

While I'd much rather deal with the Met than any US police force, they're hardly universally loved - e.g. the riots after the death of Mark Duggan.

It helps that they're mostly not armed, apart from all the guys standing around with MP5s defending public spaces from terrorists.

Duggan was a self confessed members of a drug dealing gang (Star Gang), was considered dangerous, and had a gun is his car when killed.

The Guardian were rightly forced by the PCC to retract their article that claimed Duggan was 'unarmed' and should feel ashamed of themselves for helping stoke that fire.

> London police has a very good reputation.

Maybe internationally, but they're pretty dodgy for a UK police force.

Can't say about the Met, but Thames Valley Police have been quite good as far as I can tell.

That's probably because the UK has far, far, far, far higher standards for its police than the US. Even the worst police in the UK are far better than the police here in the US.

They're trying to change how drunk people are treated in emergency departments. "Brief psycho-social interventions" can reduce the number of ED attendances.

https://twitter.com/AlexBThomson/status/549303363721232384

Long story short, a vengeful ex-girlfriend had me put in 72 hour mandatory psych evaluation twice because she didn't want me to break up with her. She claimed I was threatening to kill myself when that wasn't the case.

The first time, I freaked out and had to be held down by a group of people, including an orderly that purposely hurt me and left a large bruise on my shin after pushing it downwards against a metal bar off of a hospital bed. I was shot up with morphine to calm me down and then strapped in to a bed - and all I recall after that is waking up in the morning to someone staring at me from the door way. Supposedly, action was taken against the orderly - but I have no guarantee or follow up on that. Additionally, when the police originally arrived at my apartment, two officers searched it looking for a weapon (they found a steak knife that had fallen next to the stove which they questioned me about - I don't even remember it falling there - could've been there for a while) - I am pretty sure they had no right to search my place, but I could be wrong.

The second time, I was forced to take double the dose of the medication I normally took for anti-anxiety/depression which actually caused me to hallucinate while I was locked up. This 72-hour hold actually lasted much longer because the staff psychiatrist left for an extended Thanksgiving weekend, so it came out to 5 days.

It truly worries me how bad of an experience this was. I met some interesting people with interesting issues during these two brief experiences - but I don't see how they were being provided with the help they actually needed.

Never call the cops. Police due two things: apply force and file paperwork. If you have a medical or person problem, the police are not who to call. Sadly, that meand you can't call 911 either, you have to find the phone number for MEDICAL support.

so 911 is not police, fire or ambulance in the US?

what do you ring if you need firefighters or a doctor?

911 is police, fire, or ambulance. But which combination shows up is decided by the dispatcher, not the caller, so you can't call 911 if you want to be sure that police won't respond.

It's all of those things, but since we have an excess of police and not of those other public servants it's typically the cops who arrive first. Even the cops who wouldn't interfere with paramedics at work are likely to harass people who need paramedics in their absence.

This.So this. Those of us who knew Ian and cared about him have our own responsibility to know what happened.

There is no situation that the cops can't make worse.

Don't call the cops. Don't ever ever call the cops.