Draft of minute: getting help for someone in crisis without police

RantWoman is very excited. Well, RantWoman will try to strike a balance about parts of a draft minute on crisis intervention without police and which parts she want to go all RantWoman on.

 

Here is the draft minute and a survey about Friends' Opinions. Even though RantWoman plans to ask annoying questions and cavil about some wording, there are pieces RantWoman really likes and wants to encourage . Friends to work with further. Also RantWoman cannot possibly add another project to her plate so she is very happy to offer encouragement to Friends called to work on this. So do the survey. Your call whether to do the survey before or after reading RantWoman's opinions further.

Google Form Survey based on Draft Minute

Here are direct links to two programs mentioned in the survey. RamntWoman is providing direct links in case the survey for some reasons goes away..

White Bird Clinic CAHOOTS program

RantWoman means to read more about this program.

SFD HealthOne Program

Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Reference to an existing program and something specific people can go talk to policy makers about. RantWoman is pretty sure Meeting is in CM Pedersen's district, where many Friends also live. RantWoman would say there is more work ahead before the text below is ready to present and talking to CM Pedersen is likely to be an interesting experience. 

RantWoman's understanding is that HealthOne services come into play only after a person has had many calls to 911 or perhaps low level encounters with police. The program is woefully underfunded and. Based on a presentation RantWoman heard at a transportation event awhile ago, RantWoman thinks the program's success is measured mainly in terms of reduced calls to 911 and some kinds of costs . RantWoman has little information about longer term outcomes for the people served through the program.

RantWoman does not think a minute needs to go into too much detail but calling for substantial increase in funding to expand staffing seems on point.

RantWoman is of two minds about routing everything through the 911 system. A barista dealing for the dozenth time with some difficult individual might really really happy just to have police officers shoo the individual away again. On the other hand that creates trackable data and trained social workers could be summoned just as easily as police. Maybe baristas would also feel more comfortable and less burdened by life on society's homelessness frontiers.

 

By coincidence, an update on Health One, from meeting notes for the June 1 King County Mobility Coalition Access to healthcare Committee:

Bluntly, the HealthOne system by itself is nowhere near enough, but it is an interesting starting point.

Here also is a Previous RantWoman effort vaguely relevant

Here are parts of the proposed minute that RantWom`an wants to interact with. RantWoman could perfectly well complete the survey but RantWoman's opinions are too complicated to fit into the survey as framed. This is a common problem for RantWoman around surveys so please bear with

Friends have a history of responding to people in need of spiritual healing. Hundreds of years ago, we pioneered many humane mental health treatment methods. 

Not sure what I would put in a minute here but a note:

Early Friends (Quakers) were familiar with prison issues of the day because many Friends got thrown into prison due to challenging both church and state authority. History shows many early Friends were themselves challenging and difficult personalities. Other Friends have been motivated by genuine if sometimes misguided compassion. Friends in the US contributed to the development of the penitentiary concept. Many modern Friends walk that idea back after realizing how disruptive it can be for people's psyches.

In addition, nonviolent conflict resolution is a longstanding Friends tradition.

For the last 40 years, UFM has offered care to our houseless neighbors, and the housing crisis has dramatically worsened during that time. Lack of housing is disabling and extremely stressful, and many in our community have had direct conflicts with unhoused folks struggling to survive. Members of our community also struggle with mental illness. Currently, the only city-wide all-hours method for connecting people in crisis to existing government resources is the police. We want to expand the choices available to ordinary people trying to support one another.

Hmmm, there's that part about telling a longtime member she is not welcome and calling the police, but okay, 

We envision a Beloved Community that offers solidarity and mutual aid to people who are struggling socially, economically, spiritually, and psychologically. Recognizing that of God in everyone, we hope to rely on non-coercive care, not force, in responding to challenging situations.

Recently RantWoman was at an event about the "Blessed Comunity." RantWoman would be fine if people can just aim for the "Bless Your Heart Community.." Start there.

University Friends Meeting calls on Washington State, King County, and the City of Seattle to make it possible for ordinary people to respond effectively to people in crisis without going through the police.

This means allocating more funding to social welfare programs to allow them to respond promptly to referrals from untrained civilians, and giving 911 operators the option to direct calls to non-police responders who can provide mental health support, family and community mediation, drug-user health, and many other crisis services. This also means funding first responders who are not connected to police. The CAHOOTS program, which has been successfully operating in Eugene for over 30 years, is one model. Another option would be expanding Seattle’s new Health One program so that anyone can request its services with the same ease as calling police.

RantWoman has a few more comments;

--It's great to write a "We call on .." minute, but what else might the UFM community or individuals with strong leadings also be led to do? RantWoman would love to be wrong, but she is pretty sure people who control money flows are not spontaneously going to exclaim "Oh, the Quakers are coming! We MUST do as they ask!" 

  --What do Friends need to be able to talk to neighbors, coworkers, others in circles outside UFM about the extent of the homelessness problem and about specific approaches to address it? 

  --Are there Friends with leadings to follow this particular policy debate in enough detail to alert others when there are important votes or hearings?

--Is there anything topical that could be supported in the immediate area of UFM through the  U District partnership?

--RantWoman notes the total absence of any wording about racial inequity. RantWoman can live with that for now except that RantWoman wants to know that any data collection processes involved collect as much data about race and disability as people are willing to share so that projects can continue to evolve in a data driven way.

What say y'all?