Hernando Today
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Training Prepares Law Enforcement For Mentally Ill
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Published: October 6, 2008
BROOKSVILLE - Here's the scene:
A deputy shows up at a home to investigate a noise complaint. He looks past the woman who opens the front door to see the living room in shambles.
At the center of the destruction is a shirtless man, bleeding from various cuts, hair standing on end and screaming nonsense. His aggression level is amped up at the sight of a uniform and he begins posturing for a fight.
What to do?
Judging from appearances, it could be that the suspect is strung out on drugs. But Deputy Jason Deso knows that this could be a mental health issue as well.
His experience and training with the Crisis Intervention Team allows him to recognize signs of mental illness and has prepared him to de-escalate a situation with words. Starting with a gentler approach can avoid exacerbating a hostile situation. The benefit: No one gets hurt.
Training with the CIT "is a big help," said Judy Thompson, a board member of the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Harming people with mental illnesses "is not the police's intention, but it becomes the outcome."
NAMI has several events planned to commemorate Mental Health Awareness Week, which kicks off today.
Formed in Memphis to prepare cops for dealing with the mentally ill, the CIT has spread nationwide. Deso was in the inaugural class when the Hernando County Sheriff's office first sent deputies for training in Pasco County two years ago.
It was eye opening.
As he went through the class, Deso began to recognize signs of mental illness in people he had committed to treatment under the Baker Act. Some of the signs applied to his family, too.
Through the class he learned how to recognize triggers that might be antagonizing the patient's conditions. Sometimes it just takes removing a family member from the room to calm someone down.
He speaks in a slow, calm voice, which forces the irrational person to quiet down so they can hear. He understands that touching a schizophrenic in the grip of hearing voices is probably the worse thing to do.
"It takes a little extra time," Deso explains, but it's usually better to take the time now than continue to go back to the home.
It's about accountability, too. Road deputies should follow up and make sure the patients are taking their medicine and keeping appointments. Citizens begin to recognize that law enforcement officials are not always the "bad guys there to take you away," Deso said.
The next CIT class is in November. With only about 25 deputies trained locally to respond to a situation involving mental illness, resources are spread a bit thin. But ideally, the sheriff's office would like to have a roster of deputies who can respond at any given time.
Thompson, who has a daughter with a mental illness, said there's a "light-bulb" moment at the CIT training sessions when people in the room begin to understand the fundamentals of mental illness.
Some come away with a sense of guilt over the way they handle past experiences, but "no one should feel guilty about what they didn't know," Thompson said. "Now you do know different."
Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com.
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