Managing interactions with individuals who have schizophrenia

¶ … suffers from Schitzophrenia

Dealing with people who suffer from Schizophrenia

Excellent communication skills are essential in policing when you are dealing with people who suffer from schizophrenia, because these people can only be understood and influenced by those who attempt to apply a special treatment, meant to ease the relationship between the mentally ill individual and the authorities.

Schizophrenia is a very controversial disorder, as it known not to have a cure and for the fact that its symptoms vary depending on the individual and on the surrounding environment. The general public is normally inclined to behave toward schizophrenic persons similarly to how they behave towards normal ones. To treat schizophrenics the same way that you treat normal individuals virtually means to discriminate them. One can go as far as claiming that someone would discriminate schizophrenics by not discriminating them. There were often cases when schizophrenics did not display any improvement, even though those close to them performed efforts to provide them with a special treatment.

One of the worst things about schizophrenia is that one can rarely predict the behavior of a schizophrenic. Communication is normally ignored when treating schizophrenics, as it is known to have little to do with the cognitive abilities of those suffering from schizophrenia.

The general public is free to try any method that appears to have even the smallest effect in order to ameliorate (not cure) the symptoms put on view by a schizophrenic person. There are little to n certainties when it comes to schizophrenia, with some treatment methods proving to be effective for some patients while being totally ineffective for others.

People are as a rule accustomed to reasoning in order to impose their point-of-view with someone, in hope that the latter would agree. This is however useless when dealing with a schizophrenic individual who is undergoing an delusion, as they are less likely to understand what they are being told, not to mention their capability to share the point-of-view of the person trying to talk some good sense into them.

A main reason for why one cannot simply attempt to address a schizophrenic's emotional side is because schizophrenics perceive things differently when they experience a delusion. Interpersonal relationships have a direct effect on a normal person's brain development, functioning, and on human conduct. Depending on a brain's reactions to certain stimuli, an expert can approximate the organ's ability to become influenced by the setting around them.

A mentally ill person is in most occasions predisposed to believe that the figments of the imagination caused by their sickness are real, thus making most reluctant to voluntarily undertake psychiatric evaluations. Schizophrenics and their families are in most cases unwilling to resort to call the police when sick individuals encounter difficulties involving them breaking the law. This disinclination en route for using the police is typically caused by the fact that the authorities are known to apply a harsh treatment to unlawful schizophrenics. Even when people are not afraid that the police will resort to committing abuse when they deal with schizophrenics, they are still hesitant to believe that their close ones will be privileged because of their illness when they are under police custody.

People suffering from schizophrenia are more likely to resort to crime when in comparison to normal individuals. As a result, it is absolutely necessarily for the police to be experienced in dealing with such criminals with prudence, withholding themselves from using the same treatment applied to criminals in general.

It is difficult for one's family or community to accept them and their behavior when the respective person is schizophrenic. Those close to them normally stand besides the mentally ill individual, supporting them until they feel that they cannot do it anymore and that they need more competent agencies to get involved. The police are among the first that people call when they have to do with a schizophrenic person. Unfortunately, the help that the police provide is in some cases detrimental, only serving in making conditions worse.

It often happens that a mentally ill individual ends up in jail instead of undergoing treatment in a specialized institute for the crimes that they committed.

Violence is one of the main practices employed by the police when it deals with mentally ill persons. Whether it is because they are not aware of the fact that the offenses performed by an individual are a result of schizophrenia, or whether they simply admit that the best way of calming a mentally ill person is through beating, police officers sometimes believe that hostility is the only solution.

Regardless of the crime committed by a mentally ill person, the authorities are responsible for dealing effectively with the respective individual, and in addition to that they have to apply a treatment that is different from the ones they employ in dealing with everyday criminals.

Interactions between the police and mentally ill persons have occurred frequently in the recent years. One of the reasons for this is deinstitutionalization, along with the fact that the government is unwilling to provide funds intended to assist and institutionalize mentally ill individuals. It is as if the governments prefer to pay police officers rather than to invest in mental health care programs. This has devastating effects, both for those who suffer from a mental illness, and for the world of crime, as police officers have to deal with ill individuals instead of fighting crime.

Unfortunately, most police officers who come across mentally ill persons are unable to detect symptoms which indicate that an individual suffers from a mental illness. When dealing with a potential criminal, police officers need to choose the best response option. Thus, it is mandatory for them to be given instructions regarding mental illnesses and how to approach a situation involving a schizophrenic individual.

There were numerous cases of law agents being harmed because they did not know that the suspect they were approaching was suffering from schizophrenia. Also, there were a great number of situation involving a suspect being subjected to violence because police officers did not receive training on how to deal with someone who is mentally ill. Apparently, authorities have made progress on the topic of instructing police officers on the risks involved in dealing with a schizophrenic person. However, such initiatives are in most cases ineffective because of various factors, ranging from the limited number of training programs and to the fact that many prefer to stick to traditional methods instead of using new techniques.

Education is the key to fighting crime, especially when the criminal is someone suffering from schizophrenia. In addition to the fact that the police needs to receive instructions concerning mentally ill people, the families and the communities that call the police when they can no longer control a schizophrenic person should also undergo education on the subject of schizophrenia.

Police officers who have not been properly instructed in how to deal with schizophrenia, along with families (communities) that are either too scared to inform the authorities on all the factors involved in their condition or simply disregard the fact that the schizophrenic person they know is not rational, in most cases lead to devastating consequences, to all part involved.

In the case of some people suffering from schizophrenia the illness has shown less symptoms and both the mentally ill individuals and those close to them may be unaware that the disease is present. Accordingly, police officers will not be presented with information regarding a suspect's mental situation, making it even more important for them to be able to spot the warning signs and come up with the best solution. This often happens with homeless people.

Schizophrenia is also a cause for people ending up on the streets, partly because their families did not understand their condition and partly because they could not integrate society properly. When coming across an aggressive homeless individual, most police officers tend to consider that his or her deviant behavior is a direct result of their poverty and desperation, and would thus be certain that there is no reason for them to act differently from how they would act when dealing with a normal criminal.

During acute episodes of schizophrenia, mentally ill individuals are likely to resort to a series of harmful activities. Suicide is apparently one of the main causes of death among people suffering from schizophrenia. Taking this into mind, one might consider that it is vital for police officers dealing with suicide cases which involve a schizophrenic to receive instructions previous to attempting to talk the suicidal person into stopping their performance.

Police officers who deal with suicidal individuals are presumably educated in putting into exercise a strategy meant to be as efficient as possible in order to prevent people from ending their lives.

While most police psychologists are instructed in how to approach a suicide attempt, their knowledge in dealing with schizophrenic individuals that have suicidal tendencies is limited. As said above, one cannot simply apply general rules to people who are mentally ill.

In addition to having to wear civilian clothes and having to get information regarding the background of the person attempting to commit suicide, the police officer in charge of the situation has to pay special attention to the feelings he conveys to his interlocutor. Authorities often find themselves giving wrong verdicts in regard to a person displaying suicidal behavior. Suicide is frequently associated with mental illnesses, as people are inclined to ignore the fact that society offers numerous other reasons for which one would feel like they have to end their lives, delusions being just one of the motives.

Communication is not new to the sphere of influence relating to schizophrenia, as people have discovered its importance during the first half of the twentieth century. At that time, communication was believed to be essential to the behavior of individuals. Certain psychoanalysts went as far as claiming that schizophrenia was caused by mothers who did not give enough attention to raising their children. Of course, this is less likely to be true, as schizophrenia is more often caused by factors other than maternal nurture.

In spite of the fact that a delusion can be stronger than ration in most cases, individuals should constantly use communication as one of the methods employed in talking some sense in a schizophrenic person. The police needs to identify a "specific problem, to list alternative solutions, discuss the pros and cons of each solution, choose the best one, and implement it" (Warner, 2000, p. 57). Such methods are apparently highly effective in reducing the symptoms displayed by schizophrenic persons.

Police officers have to make use of a series of practices when they deal with a schizophrenic individual, as there is a large possibility for the mentally ill person to react constructively to particular incentives.

People with a high emotional sensitivity are known to display much more intense behavior than normal people. Thus, police officers who deal with individuals suffering from schizophrenia need to concentrate on the feelings that they trigger in the mentally ill persons, so as to produce as little damage as they can in order to find the best solution to the problem that they have to address.

A large number of factors can be taken in hand when considering the strong connection causality between schizophrenia and communication. Ranging from the persons close to a schizophrenic individual, and until much more complex bodies, such as the mass media, schizophrenics receive stimuli from virtually everyone and everything they come across. This contributes to the theory involving the importance of communication in schizophrenia. A schizophrenic can start to feel like they either want to support the surrounding environment, or that they are against it, all of these sentiments being induced by their own mind and by the social order.