Unless you live under a rock, you cannot have escaped the coverage of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation fight.

It’s literally everywhere, if not on talk shows then on the news. It can be overheard in conversations on the bus, train or coffee shop line.

Im not going to discuss the political side of this issue, I’m going to tell you about how this issue has far reaching perhaps unforeseen consequences way outside the political arena. I could do several blog posts about the mental health care system in this country. Its dismal in most places and I come across very few people who enter into it voluntarily.

I’ve mentioned before the “frequent flyer EDP’s (emotionally disturbed persons) that live in my area. Most of them are well known to us, and to local law enforcement and we know what to expect from an encounter.

Last week we were called out to a very familiar address for an EDP. She is usually combative until we show up, and then she becomes cooperative, accepting the eventuality that she is going into the “pod” for a psychiatric evaluation. This time, as my partner and I rolled up, she was insistent on not getting into the ambulance.

I’ve had her resist before so I wasn’t really surprised, until she turned around and said that the last time we took her to the hospital, “we raped her.” I can assure you that this was not the case.

Two days later, another frequent flyer needing transport. This one is particularly hard because she is very needy and nervous. It takes a million years to get her out of her apartment.

On this day, as soon as I walked in she lost her mind. Her aide said that she had been on the phone with a local politician alleging that the last time she went by ambulance for a psych eval, she was sexually assaulted on the way.

The medic did an EKG which requires leads to be applied to the patients chest. (They are trained very carefully on how this is done so as not to make anyone uncomfortable.) Not only did she accuse him of assault, but she accused the other crew members of rubbing their genitals on her and telling her to “relax and enjoy it.” Both of these patients referenced “knowing their rights” and “they weren’t going to be silenced anymore.”

Their baseless accusations in a desperate bid to avoid going to the hospital now affects your lives too. Not only your pocket, but your personal safety.

“How?” you ask. In order to protect ourselves from false accusations made by people trying to avoid hospitalization, we must now have a law enforcement officer on board while we transport. That takes the police officer patrolling your neighborhood out of the area for at least 45 minutes. Medically necessary, absolutely not!!! Dictated by the out of control left, you bet!