If you saw a mentally ill person on the street yelling?

Question

what do you call? 911? lets say the person isnt hurting anyone but obviously has problems. like i saw this man on a relatively deserted street yelling and cursing at noone in particular. almost as if to himself. Or what if you saw a person who looked like they wanted to commit suicide? who do you call?

Answer 1

When you live in a large city this is unfortunately common place.   For the most part I ignore it.

There has been the odd instance where I do honestly fear for the person's safety (as they are making inflammatory statements)  and I will call my local police stations non emergency line and alert them that there is a disturbance.

Generally a person screaming on the street is not an emergency it is a nuisance.  

If a person is on a ledge or climbing over a bridge railing I would be calling 911, however being unsure of "looks like they may commit suicide" is I would have to say no, unless they were in immediate danger i would not call 911.

Answer 2

My street is full of people like that from time to time. I just run the other way.

Answer 3

There is a disease that this does happen, I forget what it is called.  Just let the person alone if he isn't in harms way, or not harming another.  The actions and words are involuntary, they cannot really help it.

Answer 4

Unfortunately, a large percentage of homeless people have mental disorders.  The person you saw probably had schizophrenia and wasn't taking his medication.  If he isn't a danger to himself or other people, it's fine to just leave him alone.  Most mentally ill people are not a danger to anybody.  On the other hand, if someone seems an immediate danger to himself or other people, of course you should call 911.  The police can then take the person to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.