Just so it’s clear, when I said to call the police, I wasn’t suggesting trying to have him arrested. This is an ill person, not a criminal. In most locales, it is standard procedure for the police to escort mentally ill people to the hospital if there is a concern that the person’s mental illness could cause them to harm someone.
The way he worded it, he could easily claim that he was just talking about karma in general, the way people say, “what comes around goes around” and wasn’t making any threats.
If someone could tell me that 95% of all schizophrenics will never be a physical danger to others and limit their damage to ranting and accusations, I’d feel better. I can deal with his verbal craziness, it’s the uncertainty over what he’ll do that makes me uneasy.
I wouldn’t feel comfortable about that interaction if I was in your shoes either. Even though it’s an indirect threat, it’s a threat none the less.
If your department issued the certificate couldn’t you revoke it based on your interactions with him ? Check your policies.
Either way I’d call contact social services and see what they say.
If it helps, you could keep in mind that to someone like that, pretty much everyone is part of it. You aren’t uniquely targeted in that sense.
Alice, I do have experience with this. I would do anything you can to distance yourself from contact with this person. You are doing fine so far, but the less you interact, the less chance you have to become an important part of his delusion. Though medicated schizophrenics pose little threat, those who are not on medication do pose an elevated threat of violence or other disturbing behavior.
I would call the police, making it clear that you are concerned, but not seeking an arrest. I doubt they can do anything and the police are often ill equipped to deal with the mentally ill, but they may have experience with this person. It will also give you some history to refer to if you need to escalate in asking for help. Once you have filled your duty in providing services to this person I hope you are able to step back and avoid further contact.
Unfortunately nobody can tell you that, because there is some degree of danger in situations where a mentally ill person is paranoid. There have been cases where a paranoid psychotic person has harmed others because they thought that someone was a threat to them.
According to this article, Arizona is one of the states where it is easier to have mentally ill people brought in for evaluation and treatment:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/13/us-usa-shooting-law-idUSTRE70C6JQ20110113
Thanks for the advice, everyone. He did come into the office for his follow-up today. He didn’t say anything to the doctor about his delusions, just said that he hadn’t been able to find any medical marijuana, which he has but he thought it was poisoned. He denied having schizophrenia, although he did claim that doctors have let him smoke pot in the hospital before. Anyway, the doctor didn’t revoke his recommendation, but he did tell him that he would revoke it if he called me again. The patient apologized to me on his way out and said he wouldn’t contact me, but I can’t really trust that, knowing that he wasn’t completely honest with the doctor, either. He is definitely not medicated.
Could he have been high when he called? He could be less under control of his delusions while high.
You should’ve called the police. I work in H/R and I have had similar threats against myself and my staff. We report them. Of course, they are never direct threats, but the cops cannot simply arrest someone because you report them.
They will take down your information and act on it. Or not act on it. All you did was shift the burden onto the next place he tries to get marijuana from.
As someone else pointed out, if he has a record or a RO against him, that may be enough to have him hauled in. It may have helped someone else out. Remember it’s not just you. If he’s acting this way, he could be hurting himself as well. Or someone else.
Dopers say that to Alice all the time.
If you look at her posting history, you’ll encounter a person who is always giving the benefit of the doubt, making the best of things, thinking well of people, trusting, etc.
Then she asks for advice on her latest situation, generally something that sets off ear-splittingly-loud alarm bells with the less sweet-natured among us.
Alice now has two problems: threats from a mentally-ill person of unknown history and known untruthfulness, and an employer who is allowing Mr. Threats to continue visiting the office.
From the oddities I picked up on various threads recently regarding “legal marijuana” in the US, could you do a Ask the … thread about your job?
Don’t know how it works with Dope rules, but I remember them being against current illegal drug use, I would tend to think it would be ok for the Dope to have a thread like that (seeing as that would be legal drug use).
Here you go, ask away. They cut my hours and I had to leave for another job, but then I came back after a couple of months and got more hours.
Ha thanks, had missed it. Will read the thread and posts some questions later.
I’m not particularly familiar with the US medical system. So my responses are going to be based on my experiences of mental health in Australia, and even here things vary depending on where you live.
My thought would be to look into whether there is a mental health team in your local area (they may be based at the local hospital, or the hospital may be able to direct you how to contact them).
These types of team will often have an intake line, where you can report your concerns. The team then will make a decision whether to act on these concerns (by attempting contact/an assessment with the person). In particular, it is possible this person may already be known to the team in some way, especially if he has been hospitalised in the past. They may also know if he has a history of violence (they won’t be able to tell you this information, but it may inform their decisions about how to respond to the information you provide).
If he is unmedicated, and has become unwell to the point where he is danger to himself or others, the team is often best placed to arrange hospitalisation (except in immediate danger situations, where emergency services should be called).
It can be difficult in cases where the client is delusional, but has enough insight to disguise this when mental health attempt to speak to him, but I would still suggest contacting the mental health team - if nothing else it begins to create a history of third parties concerns which can be helpful if other people also call MH with concerns.
If you’re uncertain about reporting the concerns to the mental health line, you could start by calling with a general query about the referral/triage process.
Didn’t I used to have a post in this thread?