Skid Row: A mental health state of emergency | Deon Joseph | TEDxGrandPark

[@eisenhoward1]

Thank you Deon Joseph! You are one of the last jewels of Los Angeles!

[@JennDF]

Amazing…just found this video via the officer Tatum show….great guy giving the talk.

[@paulaton8584]

REAL TALK..DEON THE WORLD NEEDS MORE PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!!☝🏾☝🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[@tjonessc]

Amazing he could be on a foot post on the row all those years. Man truly blessed to be able to deal with so many lost souls and hold onto compassion and humanity...

[@nbdb23]

More police like him please!!!

[@savagegtalks5912]

what happen to family values? "more police like him please" spoken like one raised by a single mother of the modern west. A modern female that don't really cares for her offspring that much, just pretend for her climb up social status ladder... So she can one day be the president... When I see Skid Row, I see lot's of families that failed their sons and daughters.

[@kendrabrown6345]

@@savagegtalks5912 that makes sense because you've never really experienced too much in life so I could see where you easily go to naming one thing and not understanding that actually there's multiple things but good for you though

[@kendrabrown6345]

Don't worry about this troll

[@pjcampbell67]

Many years ago, I lived in downtown LA for a couple of years and I was fortunate enough to participate in a program that was with, I believe The Union Rescue Mission and LAPD where they escorted folks around the Skid Row area and allowed us to interact with the people living there. It was such an eye opening experience. The care of the mission workers and the LAPD officers was beyond impressive. A very special group of people that have genuine concern for those on the fringe of society! Keep doing what you do! 💖

[@turdferguson1603]

This guy has an amazing story to tell. People should listen to him.

[@joebracero4638]

Mental illness is real folks. Deon nailed it right on the head and explained it as clear and concise as a law enforcement officer with 24 yrs experience can. Society has failed at recognizing the mentally ill who require immediate intervention, and allowed them to become just an "inconvenience". As a law enforcement officer with over 24 yrs myself, we can all do better.

[@johnfunes3736]

God keep Deon J. safe, because he loves the invisible people in society. Men like him give me hope in are very humanity. Most people do nothing and watch as the world burns around us. Only a chosen few really care enough to love so much they become the change we all want. Any person going against the grain of the hurt and anger of society has my blessing. Deon Joseph you are man of courage and kindness.

[@mrsblue3011]

I have said this so many times. The homeless on skid row is not a housing issue- it is a mental illness issue. Most of these poor people are not well enough to sustain themselves. Most family members are burned out or indifferent or have no knowledge or time for their mentally ill family members. We have to bring back institutions only humane.

[@Jessi-LaCosta]

I am not a fan of institutions as it is challenging to maintain the "humane" in them - and yet true to your point some people have no other option and when that is NOT an option - the last resort becomes the streets. I would also add that family members may also not have the funds to help their loved ones.

[@marlenecesarotti8468]

Thanks for all you do...was watching video on utube about man climbing pole & there you were trying to help him w/fire dept.another great group of heroic people

[@DekkerDavis]

This is a man with empathy and heart...jeff from Canada

[@BucketListCoachWebShow]

Deon is soo awesome.... So blessed to know him

[@borabelle8352]

Thank you Officer Joseph for these words.

[@MiladJP]

This talk is so underrated

[@Lukas-mu2tw]

How does this video not have more views

[@melcontent]

Awesome. Thank you Officer Joseph!

[@Patriccist]

You see there's no hype about a good cop like this. I cant believe it has so few views.

[@thisoldnurse1521]

Community Health in the downtown core of many cities in North America has been suffering for many years. Before illness forced me to stop work as a community RN, there were symptoms of a larger problem. Addiction and mental illness in the downtown centres doesn't appear to be slowing, it is an ongoing cycle as the less fortunate marginalized have children. Funding for satellite clinics offering Social Workers, Mental Health Counsellors, Doctors and Nurses are desperately needed. We cannot save everyone but we should be there for those who are reaching out. We should be able to offer a helping hand to help lift those up. These are people with stories, often about hurts that occurred in childhood and if you took a moment to listen you could understand why people make the choices they've made. I witnessed this on a smaller scale, where I worked, over 30 years ago in Canada. (We did have a satellite " cop shop" in the area, but more help is needed).

[@yvetteseltz6547]

Informative talk, Deon. Keep speaking the truth.

[@tyquanbarnes3382]

It’s the system

[@dustykitzmiller3201]

Amazing talk, Sir! God bless! May we soon fix the system!

[@dsegal1401]

Excellent talk! Fascinating

[@rajrammbbs]

Smart man .

[@imlegero]

LeBron please sit down and talk to this man. This man is an inspiration.

[@theaveragecitizen7130]

Lebron isn’t interested in having real conversation with an educated individual who knows the deal. His narrative would be destroyed and he’s too incompetent to understand the reality of life on the streets.

[@patrickpacheco1247]

Hope Lebron hears ya out Officer Joseph. He’s driving a wedge for my love of our Lakers.

[@jennifurzoe1302]

Lebron is also driving a bigger wedge between the cops and the community(which was already big).

[@Refresh636]

31 million subscribers and this vid is only at 6k views in almost over a year, so sad

[@TChalla007]

This is Captain America.

[@Jason1331]

Can this guy plz replace Governor Newsom???

[@denisehaley9466]

You see a whole mouthful

[@vazquezmr1153]

On one of his videos he told the true new homeless people was only mental illness. After days of no help and hope they be came drug users. Hospitals to all this people on the streets.

[@darleneewing7710]

When chemicals involved , that's first to them . To keep vices. The rest is how to manipulate to play the "chessgame", per my attacker , culprit . Their freewill is vice oriented not for discipline.

[@terry9238]

If the prescribed medications are making people lethargic, maybe those aren’t the best medications for them. OR-if those are the only medications that can keep some people “stabilized” enough that they not harm others or themselves-then those people shouldn’t be turned out on the streets and expected to make a living(!) and support themselves while on medication. They should be provided with housing and the means to pay for food, utilities, incidentals, and bus passes. And MAYBE they should be given some part time work that suits their abilities while on medication-though they probably should NOT be expected to find and do “real” jobs in the current “marketplace”. We may not like the idea of supporting (nominally) “able bodied” adults; but what other choice is there? If we ourselves wouldn’t hire people whose medication makes them “lethargic”, we shouldn’t assume that some other employer, somewhere, will hire and retain them. So we shouldn’t insist that people in that condition support themselves. Maybe we should just deem them disabled and grant them disability payments. Oh, and also-we should make disability payments enough to live on. That program hasn’t kept up with the cost of living AT ALL.

[@justinbennett1937]

Jesus Christ is Lord

[@manuelpedroza5042]

LeBron who?

[@silvestrepanzer5265]

I worked as a community mental health and clinical social worker for over 20 years at the time when this officer began serving in LA. He is correct about the systemic failure in places like California, including the failures of institutional psychiatry and the beurocratic mental health systems. He is also correct about the inhumane and short sided treatment of people with mental illness. But I strongly disagree with the solutions that he proposes in response to his experiences as police officer. Perhaps the good officer would be best served by reading a few books about the history of mental illness. What he proposes as solutions was exactly the genesis of the modern treatment of mental illness and crisis of today, which was essentially a money grab for insurance companies and pharmaceutical drug pushers orchestrated by Republicans in control of government under then Governor Ronald Regan. The promise, rather the plan, was to empty the long-term psychiatric wards and institute what was conceived as the best practice and promise of the community mental health model. I saw much success during the implementation of that model, which by 2000 had been gutted and overburdened with county and state regulations and the glotonous profiteering of the medical insurance racket. And so now, in 2022, we have come full circle thinking that the only solution left to address homelessness, drug addiction, poverty, and mental illness is to arrest people and force them into treatment programs that do not exist or exist to extract large profit margins from the misery of these populations. Rest assured that most people suffering from the most horrific and life-threatening health issues will end up in county jails and short-term hospitals, and masses of non-treated or unrehabilitated poor people will be caught in a cycle of systemic failures and abuse. That is the new paradigm pushed by the profiteers and capitalist class wanting further gentrification and the "socio-ethnic cleansing" of the urban spaces at the expense of both the poor and the taxpayers of America.