Training prepares officers for mental illness situations
Northeast Mississippi Daily JournalFeb 22, 2018
Cpl.
"I've seen a lot of people who were going through crisis, but never realized it," Morgan said. "The training made me realize that some of the folks I thought were just not listening to me, might not have understood me."
"We responded to 15 calls (Tuesday) night and four or five of them were legitimate mental health issues."
Patrolman
"You just don't always think about (mental illness)," Harville said. "A lot of it is just talking to them like a person instead of a criminal and building a rapport."
During the weeklong training, the 10 officers toured facilities in
"I loved the site visits," Newlin said. "I was talking to someone with (post traumatic stress disorder) and he said this is how you need to deal with me or someone with PTSD. That was helpful."
"I wasn't sure when the course started but by Friday, I wouldn't have traded it for the world."
Lt.
"I am going to look at sending our School Resource officers," Putt said. "It would be good for the folks at the schools to have this training."
The newly certified officers were treated to lunch Wednesday at Lifecore, where they got to meet another resource available to them, the mobile crisis emergency response team. Mobile crisis supervisor
"We wanted to be able to meet the mobile team face-to-face," Riddle said. "In addition to the team being able to respond to calls with the officers, it works both ways. There are situations we deal with where we will be able to call for a certified officer to assist."
Officials hope to see the training expand to include law enforcement agencies throughout Lifecore's seven county region --
So far, only three departments have gone through the training, but the need for more trained officers is there.
After Newlin got back from the training, he was talking to a
"She was asking for help and knew who she needed to talk to," Newlin said. "But they didn't know what she was talking about."
In addition to expanding the training, Lifecore chief executive officer
"It would only be four beds, but you would only hold them for 24 hours before they were released or transfered to the appropriate facility," Berthay said. "We already have a facility. We just need to hire the staff."
A bill for funding the center is currently before the state legislature in
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