Police are considering requesting fallen AFL star Ben Cousins be made an involuntary patient for a psychiatric assessment. File image. Source: News Limited
POLICE are considering requesting fallen AFL star Ben Cousins be made an involuntary patient for a psychiatric assessment, WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said.
Mr O'Callaghan said Cousins may become an involuntary patient for a 28-day assessment under the Mental Health Act if a magistrate deemed the former West Coast Eagles captain a risk.
Cousins, who has a history of substance abuse, has been hitting headlines repeatedly in the past fortnight after a string of alleged incidents.
A police car leaves the Armadale Medical Complex where Ben Cousins is being treated Source: News Corp Australia
"Clearly, Ben is suffering from a significant mental issue at the moment and that's what needs to be resolved," he told 6PR on Thursday.
"There is some minor offences being committed, but the main thing is we've got to be concerned about his safety and his welfare, and the community has got be able to respond to that in some way and provide the care that he needs."
Later, Mr O'Callaghan told reporters that Cousins was being considered for a psychiatric assessment, but he was unable to confirm "whether it's been done".
"The problem is that people are usually only experiencing psychosis either when they are taking the drugs or for some time after the taking of the drugs," he said.
"So for argument's sake, on a methamphetamine bender it's likely you might have been awake for 48, 72 hours or longer without sleep. It starts to affect your thinking patterns and you start to get psychotic.
"The way to treat that of course is to put people to sleep, to calm them down, to let them recover, but if they recover in two or three days there is no power under law to keep them in an institution for therapy.
"I think in some cases, where there is a history of behaviour that is repeated over a number of days, there might be a stronger case to go to the court and ask for a 28-day psychiatric remand, where people are forced to stay in care for 28 days for assessment and that assessment is provided to the courts."
Ben Cousins back in 2010 during a Richmond recovery session at St Kilda Beach. Source: Supplied
Mr O'Callaghan, whose son Russell has also struggled with drug addiction, sympathised with the Brownlow medallist's family, but said it was difficult to get people into therapy unless they want to be.
"You can only imagine what his family are going through at the moment," he said.
"I've had problems within my family too with Russell.
"The amount of worry that you do about your kids when they're in this sort of state and you can't do anything about it really makes it very difficult to deal with."
Cousins was charged on March 11 with reckless driving, failing to stop and refusing a breath test.
Four days later, he was detained for breaching security at an SAS base, and was hospitalised for a mental health assessment.
On Monday, he was again hospitalised after allegedly driving erratically outside a Sikh temple he had just photographed, and climbing onto the roof of a two-storey home.
So far, no charges have been laid over those two incidents.
Cousins was suspended from the AFL for one year in 2007 for bringing the game into disrepute before making a comeback with Richmond. He retired in 2010.
Cousins is scheduled to appear in Fremantle Magistrates Court on April 8.
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