Years ago, I had a roommate struggling with debt and inability to hold down a job. She was talking with her boyfriend online about committing suicide. He lived about an hour away and couldn't get ahold of me, so he ended up calling 911. Police came to our door and forced her to go to a mental evaluation by ambulance. They held her for 4 hours, told her she's fine, and gave her a nice $4000 ambulance bill to add to her debt. Yay America!!

[–] pingveno@lemmy.ml 10 points 9 months ago

We have a program, Portland Street Response, that tries to be a substitute for police when dealing with mental crisis response, especially our large population of homeless people. It was making a difference, then the politician backing it was voted out of office. Her replacement has deprived it of funding. It's very frustrating to see at the worst time.