Brittany Kelley
SAN MARCOS — Although several changes were made in Senate Bill (SB) 1164, which went into effect Sept. 1 after being passed by the 89th Texas Legislature earlier in the year, there won’t be many changes for the Hays County Sheriff’s Office, according to HCSO mental health officer Mohmmad Zaqzouq.
The bill offers “a more in depth look into law enforcement’s criteria and basis for an emergency detention, or warrantless apprehension, for someone suffering from a mental health crisis,” explained Zaqzouq.
The first amendment within the bill occurs in Section 573.001 (a), which gives the peace officer a right to take an individual into custody without a warrant if certain qualifications are met. Specifically, (a) 1 has been amended to add clarifying language that the individual must have a mental illness and either present a substantial risk of serious harm to oneself or others, have severe emotional distress or deterioration in their mental condition or present an inability to recognize symptoms or appreciate the risks and benefits of treatment. The following language was also added to (a) 2: “The person is likely without immediate detention to suffer serious risk of harm or to inflict serious harm on another person.”
The mental health officer explained that changes that other agencies may have to implement were already in effect for HCSO, such as identifying juvenile patients from adults, to ensure that their parents are notified of the emergency detention and are not reporting their child missing.
One of the more substantial changes is in Section 573.002 (d), which includes additional demographic information and a new questionnaire that, upon determining that a situation requires emergency detention, an officer is required to ask the individual. Some of the questions officers are required to ask include whether: the individual has previously been in psychiatric hospital treatment, attempted suicide, is currently taking psychiatric medication, sleeping difficulty, has a reported mental health diagnosis and more.
“It is our job to gauge the severity of the mental health crisis at that moment. It is not to put people in the hospital that do not need to be in the hospital. Our job is to provide resources to those that just need it, to provide support for individuals that need it and lend an ear. For those that are more severe, we are gauging out the situation brought by a criteria of what we call the emergency detention order,” said the officer. “That is when we are intervening and deciding that someone will be placed on an emergency detention order. So, it’s a detention and having to facilitate getting them to proper care, whether it be the emergency room, where they will then be forwarded to a mental health facility or if we are going to take them straight to a mental health facility.”
For community members questioning the need for the information, Zaqzouq stated that it is really for the betterment of the individual. Not only does it provide a guideline for officers that may be in the field, but are not trained as part of the mental health units, it also gives necessary information to hospitals to treat the patient properly.
“[For example], sleep is a big one for decompensation. If you have been in a manic state and you have not been sleeping for two, three, four days … We know that since you are not sleeping, your hallucinations are probably based on that manic and psychotic state that you’re in. So, it gives us a better understanding of what they’re suffering from. Because if you tell me, ‘They’re hallucinating’ and ‘They’re speaking to the walls’ and ‘They’re talking to themselves,’ an average person may think they’re schizophrenic, when, in reality, they haven’t slept for four days, they’re not really eating and they stopped taking their medication, so they’ve entered into a psychotic state,” explained the officer.
Some may view the application as a violation of privacy, but Zaqzouq clarified that it does not go against the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as it is pertinent information for an officer to have to ensure that a patient receives the care they need. He also emphasized that the questionnaire is only prompted after it is determined that someone will need to be taken into emergency detention.
Despite the questionnaire now being required, Zaqzouq explained that the officers had previously been asking similar questions anyway, as it was helpful to know a patient's history to give them better care.
He also noted that the questionnaire does not affect whether or not an individual receives help. This means that if the resident is unable to provide answers or refuses to, it is simply noted that HCSO was unable to receive an answer for the questions.
“Not every mental health call for service will resort to hospitalization; we want to destigmatize the idea of getting thrown into a psych ward because that’s not a thing … Our goal as a mental health unit is to inform and educate the public about mental health and to take proactive measures to prevent a mental health crisis. We are available to those that need help before entering a crisis,” emphasized Zaqzouq. “We [want to] continue just trying to stay one step ahead, however we can.”
To read SB 1164, visit capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/SB01164F.htm.
