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Calling mental health workers, not police, to deal with mental health crises [washingtonpost.com]

 

By Rob Waters, The Washington Post, June 20 2021

Spencer Merritt thought he was going to die. He couldn’t breathe and voices in his head told him he had been poisoned and that his beloved dog, Lulu, who died a year earlier, had been, too. He thought the voices were talking to him through hidden microphones and speakers, although he couldn’t find any.

His cluttered bedroom seemed like a death trap, and Merritt, 32, was terrified his parents were going to kill him. He ran down the stairs and out the front door. It was 1 a.m. and he was wearing jogging pants and a bathrobe. He paced and ran, falling to the ground as pain shot to his chest. Maybe he was having a seizure, he thought.

He called his best friend, Brandon Adams, who convinced him to go home. Locking himself in his room, Merritt managed to sleep for a few hours and began a panicky, desperate broadcast on Facebook Live.

[Please click here to read more.]

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