Mental disability and police intervention

"Mental disability" is a term used to describe a variety of conditions, which appear to influence a person's behaviour and/or how the person perceives the world. Some mental conditions are chronic and they may vary in intensity from time to time, while others are momentary, being obvious at one moment, and then disappearing. Some are responses to special stresses, and some appear to present themselves without regard to the external environment. The large number of people in society is suffering with mental health problems. According to Mental Health Act of 1987, Sec 2 (l) “mentally ill person” means a person who is in need of treatment by reason of any mental disorder other than mental retardation. Many a time's heartless people abandon people who are suffering from mental disabilities and leave them on the street. The mentally challenged persons some time create a problem and some time become victims of the problem. Problems associated with people with mental disability pose a significant challenge for modern policing. The present study begins by describing the problems, factors and challenges in front of the police. Then it helps to identify a series of questions, which might help analysing the policing problems associated with people with mental health problems.