Seminar aims to help police during calls
Dozens of first responders and mental health professionals finished up a week of crisis intervention training Thursday, where they learned how to efficiently and compassionately handle those with mental health issues when called to an emergency.
The training was organized by the Butler County-based Southwest Regional Crisis Intervention Team, as it has been each year since 2012.
The participants, who are mainly municipal and campus police officers, received 40 hours of training at Family Pathways on Brugh Avenue.
Sessions taught by experts during the five days of training included developmental disabilities, veterans panel PTSD, rights and civil commitment, suicide prevention, vicarious trauma, psychotropic medicines, and borderline and other personality disorders.
Attendees also participated in role-playing potential scenes involving mental health issues and toured a residential facility and the Grapevine Drop-In Center.
The Southwest Regional Crisis Intervention Team is operated by Mark Peffer, chief deputy in the county sheriff's office; Rich Wozniak, crisis intervention training coordinator with the Center for Community Resources (CCR) in Butler; and Marsha Wagner, a licensed professional counselor at CCR.Peffer said the most-recent class was intended to not only provide officers with intentional recognition of people in crisis and de-escalation techniques, but also empathy toward those in crisis and helping those in crisis seek the services they need.Wagner said an officer on a call Tuesday morning used the skills he had learned in a previous seminar.“The outcome was totally different,” Wagner said. “He's more aware of the needs of people with mental health issues.”Wozniak said in addition to officers from around the county, responders from the county Area Agency on Aging and Children and Youth department, county crisis and mental health workers took the class.One new session this week informed participants on dementia issues and how to identify and deal with those suffering from dementia while at the scene of an emergency.“As a crisis worker in the past, to me, the population we were seeing more and more was the over-60 population,” Wozniak said. “To be able to identify that this is a concern and there needs to be a lot of support is critical.”The session on dementia was led by Jen Callihan, a supervisor at the Area Agency on Aging.
Those in attendance learned how dementia affects the brain and behavior, the seven stages of dementia, identifying the loss of executive function in an individual and the fear and confusion experienced by a dementia suffered when they encounter an officer.“You have a badge. You are intimidating,” Callihan said. “They may not answer you appropriately or at all.”Several heads bobbed up and down when she mentioned that those in the advanced stages of dementia call police because they believe someone is trying to poison them or has stolen their valuables.She showed a video of a 78-year-old woman with dementia who picked up a few items in Walmart and did not pay for them.An officer followed the woman, who walked up the side of a road repeating “I'm going home.”When she did not comply with his demands, the officer roughly tackled the terrified and confused woman, shouting at her while placing her in handcuffs.“This officer obviously didn't take the time to talk to her and, instead, reacted in that way,” Callihan said.She shared communication strategies the officers can use in dealing with those they suspect are struggling with dementia issues.“The calmer you are in a situation with an individual with dementia, the better it's going to work out,” she said.Terry Fedokovitz, Slippery Rock police chief, attended the weeklong training and will share what he learned with his officers.“That is going to be a valuable tool we'll be able to use for a long time,” Fedokovitz said of the mental health training.He said he has dealt with people suffering from dementia many times in his career.“It was a challenge for me and this will help me know how to talk to these people,” Fedokovitz said.Wagner said more than 350 police officers have received crisis intervention training since the classes began in 2012.Peffer said the team held four crisis intervention trainings this year.“They enhance this community and make it safer,” he said.
