Good night everyone and just got done work and need to be back at it 5am

 

Good night Sean. Don't let the bed bugs bite.

 

Good morning everyone and breakfast is ready and coffee is hot

 

Off to work over another call be back in a few

 

 

Good morning NH!!

 

Good Morning Sean, Shawn, John, and the New Hampshire gang!

 

Mornin' Pat and Shawn! What's up guys? I just got off work and am heading toward the bed...LOL. Long night last night.

 

Hey John, just seeing what needs my attention here today. Pretty cool and foggy here this morning.

 

It rained most of the night here. It's 67* here right now and that was pretty much the overnight low. I had a 200 mile roadtrip last night in all of the fog and rain and it sucked...LOL.

 

Where'd you have to go John?

 

I had to take a guy to a mental health hospital for treatment. The problem is that even though there are closer hospitals, the crisis worker has a list they have to go by and it's first come, first served. If a hospital 300 miles from here calls back and will accept the person before a hospital 35 miles from here does, the guy goes to the one that's 300 miles away because they called back and accepted him first.

It's a huge waste of time, money, and resources but that's their policy and the way the law in VA is written, it's a no win situation for us. It makes it even worse when we're short-handed like we have been lately. Luckily, I had 5 guys working last night so it wasn't as bad but we had two of these transports last night. Funny thing is that the woman that went on the first transport went to the hospital that is 35 miles south of here. My guy wasn't so lucky. I had to go down to the Tennessee line, into TN about 500 yards, and back into VA to get him to the hospital.....fun trip.

A lot of these laws were modified and / or created in the months following the Virginia Tech shootings. It was kind of a knee jerk reaction to public outcry for improvement in the mental health system in VA. Some of it has been good and some not so good.

 

That sucks John. What an incredible waste of money and manpower. That's the problem with most managers and politicians. When a crisis happens, they usually over react on the ideas for prevention, instead of thinking it through and using common sense. And most are out to cover their A$$es anyway, so it's not a matter of what's the best use of money and resources.

 

Morning New Hamster!!!

 

You are exactly right my friend. The VA Tech ordeal was horrific. I was there within hours of when it happened working the grounds and had three of my guys there with me locking down the building where it all happened.

There was a lot of public outrage over the shootings and I can understand that. The system that should have succeeded in getting Cho the help he needed, failed miserably. Since then, there have been laws passed that haven't really done anything to positively impact the mental health system in VA. What I have seen though is a sharp increase in the number of involuntary committals we are having to handle. I'd say on average, we are transporting about 2-3 people per week to different hospitals for treatment.

The majority of what the governor did in the aftermath of the Tech incident was almost purely politically motivated. Tech is a state university and the State paid out BIG TIME to the families.