An open letter on PTSD to law enforcement
To the editor:
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a mental illness affecting thousands in the US, particularly Veterans and their loved ones. Symptoms of PTSD can mirror those of belligerence; appear threatening; and commonly occur in the home environment.
Occasionally, someone with PTSD may exhibit outwardly aggressive behavior to cope with hypervigilance – a common symptom. During such episodes it may be necessary for law enforcement, anyone, to mediate the tension. It is imperative that criminal complaints against PTSD sufferers be avoided when officers have knowledge that that individual is, in fact, mentally ill.
PTSD is stressful, and not only for the person afflicted with this psychological disorder. PTSD also causes great stress for loved ones. Occasionally, loved ones will have no recourse but to involve law enforcement to help talk down the sufferer. During such time, loved ones – often suffering compassion fatigue – may air their frustrations simply because law enforcement is present with an ear and a shoulder. These remarks should never be taken out of context. Loved ones, it must be remembered, are caring for someone who is sick and all must be interpreted within this context.
It is an affront to the pain and suffering Veterans and their families endure to claim you do not believe in PTSD or you deployed and “came back fine.” The insensitivity of such statements, spoken by law enforcement to the mentally ill or their loved ones, is immeasurably offensive. Only medically trained pathologists with clinical evidence may make such claims – for the record, none have successfully attempted such dastardly assertions.
Recently, law enforcement in Presque Isle made the decision to go against all of this. A mentally ill Veteran suffering with PTSD was arrested at his residence on inflated criminal charges despite officers’ extensive knowledge of his treatment for PTSD. The loved ones did not request law enforcement involvement nor did they wish criminal charges be brought against their mentally ill kin. And yet, that individual was bound and imprisoned. His treatment for PTSD interrupted due to the burden of criminal judicial proceedings now looming. Worse yet: during the course of the ordeal an officer, a fellow Veteran, boldly stated his disbelief in PTSD as a real medical condition.
PTSD is not something you choose to believe in like Tooth Fairies or UFOs. Law enforcement, particularly fellow Veterans, must empathize with the afflicted and defer to medical experts on the matter of PTSD. The mentally ill are no longer assumed mere criminal deviants in modern society and the same should true in Presque Isle. PIPD must train their officers to better handle calls involving the mentally ill.
Lillie Lavado
Presque Isle
