James has been suffering from Schizophrenia most of his adult life. At 21, his first major episode landed him in the back of a police van.
His own mother, scared and unsure of how to help, was the one who called police. NSW police receive 38,000 mental health-related call outs every year.
Some, like the case of Brazilian student Roberto Laudisio Curti, end in tragedy.
The Police Integrity Commission this week recommended five officers involved in Roberto's death to the DPP for criminal charges.
The coronial outcome in that case, as in the other deaths, recommended that offers be better trained to respond to the mentally ill.
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More than two decades after his own run-in with police, James is helping NSW officers come to terms with mental health.
He attends training sessions alongside frontline police, so that they can better appreciate what it's like to live with an illness like schizophrenia.
WATCH: Click the video above to see the full story by Andy Park for The Feed.
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