'It's a crisis' — mental health spiral straining La Grande Police Department | Local News
LA GRANDE â âMy officers are drowning, theyâre drowning in these calls. Itâs a crisis.â Those were the words of Lt. Jason Hays of the La Grande Police Department as he explained how his officers have increasingly become the vanguard in dealing with behavior and crises brought on by severe mental illness. The small police department has been inundated with calls for service to respond to people experiencing mental illness, sometimes tying up the entire on-duty police force for hours at a time. âThe No. 1 thing that is a pressing issue for us and that continues to ...
Source: lagrandeobserver.com