Hi Marc6x,
I am also afraid of the police and do not want them to attend to me in a mental health crisis as I am afraid of how they might treat me. As I don't want the police to attend I have had to be very aware of when I am going downhill mentally and seek alternative help that does not involve the police. Unfortunately this is very difficult to do as for many people, such as Lifeline or mental health professionals, if they have any concerns for your safety they will call the police to request a welfare check. This seems to give police rights to break into your house to check on you. If you can try to find alternative forms of support that do not involve the police it could be useful to utilise those.
One time recently I was feeling mentally unwell and wanted to get some help. As I knew that if I expressed my concerns to lifeline they would likely call the police to my house, I chose to drive to an isolated spot before calling lifeline, so the police would not be able to find me. The lifeline person calmed me a little and convinced me to drive directly to the hospital to seek help - thus avoiding the police. The nurses at the hospital told me that the police had no right to know if I was attending the hospital, unless the hospital needed to seek police assistance for my behaviour.
Unfortunately in my remote town, there is usually only 1 ambulance officer on duty, so police will often attend ambulance call outs. Perhaps if you are in a large city, where ambulances have 2 officers, then you (or family or friends on your behalf) could call an ambulance rather than have police attend. However if ambulance officers fear for their safety, they can ask police to attend for support.
Another option is a Police and Ambulance Intervention Plan. This is a document that can be created to record what strategies would be useful for the police or ambulance officers attending to you in a mental health crisis. You are able to ask to be involved with formulating this plan. It may be created in a multi-disciplinary meeting with mental health staff, police and ambulance. In my case the community mental health nurse initiated my plan, with my GP (who also works at the hospital), but I was not invited to be involved. Hopefully some mental health professionals you know and trust could help you to record some strategies that could be used to make any police or ambulance involvement less traumatic.
Another thing that could help if you do end up in hospital is an Advanced Care Directive - mental health: where you can specify what treatment you would like or what you want to avoid if admitted for mental health reasons.
I hope you have a good GP or mental health professional who understands you and can help you get the care you need, without trapping you in situations where you fear seeking help.
Good luck with litigation against the police. Unfortunately if it is the word of the police versus someone who is mentally ill, I suspect the courts will probably believe the police. The courts prefer medical evidence from a psychiatrist, and anything else from a GP or other mental health professional is unlikely to be given much weight as evidence. The police have an assumption of sanity, and it is very difficult to prove that your mental ill health was the reason you acted how you did. I feel that often people are being convicted of criminal offenses, when all they have done wrong is have a mental health condition that needs treatment. I think it is especially poor form when police are called to assist someone with a mental health crisis and end up charging them and making things much worse.
Good luck & I hope you find the right people to help you recover from your trauma and protect you from the police.
