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Mental health training in the crosshairs

Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, CA) - 6/25/2015

June 25--On average, a Yuba County sheriff's deputy is dispatched to an attempted suicide once every 16 days.

While law enforcement officers are often the first responders to a mental health crisis -- from 911 calls reporting suicide attempts to psychotic breaks and domestic disputes involving the mentally ill -- few patrol deputies have received training on how to respond to mental health issues beyond minimal requirements met during Police Academy.

State legislators are debating laws that would increase the time requirements of mandatory training on how to respond to such calls, in part due to a public pressure to decrease officers' use of physical force.

Meanwhile, the Yuba County Sheriff's Department is learning that deputies are hungry for the knowledge.

Earlier this month, three sheriff's deputies completed a free crisis intervention training by the Sacramento County Regional Crisis Intervention Team and found the experience so beneficial to their work, they immediately told supervisors to send their colleagues, including dispatchers.

The department is working to send additional personnel to fill available training openings, according to Undersheriff Jerry Read.

"I've been a cop for 20 years, and this is the first type of class I've been to like this," Deputy Frank Knight said. "I wish I had this 20 years ago. A lot of cops aren't educated on any kind of mental illness."

He also said "a lot of the younger guys could really benefit from the class."

While the Yuba County Sheriff's Department has a crisis negotiation team of four people who have undergone basic 40-hour hostage and crisis negotiation school, those individuals are not always available to immediately respond to a call, Read said.

Life-saving moment at Camp Far West

A few years ago, Knight found himself as the sole deputy talking to a teenage boy who said he wanted to jump off a bridge at Camp Far West. A crisis negotiator was at least an hour away.

"I was just trying to talk him into all the options in life he had, that there were so many options of what he could do. I don't know what clicked, but he came down," Knight recalled.

The boy was then taken to Sutter Yuba Mental Health services.

Knight said he has responded to a few other suicide attempts in his career.

The course he attended provided tips on how to respond to people in crisis, including mental health illness, suicide, PTSD and more, Knight said.

"The goal is to make sure that they are safe and that the public is safe," he said. "The ultimate success is they put down the weapon or stop doing what they were going to do. To change their mind at the time."

That is best accomplished with de-escalation, Knight said.

"Don't go in there aggressive. Try to calm the situation instead of jack it up."

The training reinforced the success of "listening to them talk before we start giving commands," Knight said.

Jail or mental health

How deputies respond will influence where an individual is transported: To jail or mental health.

Knight said some of his training focused on how to distinguish between mental health illness and someone who is under the influence of drugs.

If a mental health issue is identified in response to a domestic dispute, for example, Knight said he will often take the person to mental health.

If a mental health crisis remains unidentified, the person may end up in jail.

"It's the old adage that when you've got a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you're a cop, every solution is an arrest," Read said.

Reporter Monica Vaughan is a 2015 fellow for the John Jay College of Criminal Justice's Center on Media, Crime and Justice and the Langeloth Foundation covering "An Imprisoned Mind: The Mentally Ill & The Criminal Justice System." Appeal-Democrat readers can expect semi-regular stories examining the nexus of mental health and the Yuba-Sutter criminal justice system.

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