BUTLER TWP — While many people have dealt with a crisis or know somebody who has, many people may not feel comfortable talking with people in the midst of hard times.

But on Friday, more than 20 people graduated from a weeklong course teaching first responders how to intervene in a crisis situation.

The class was taught at Butler County Community College by Mark Peffer, a chief deputy sheriff with the Butler County sheriff’s office. The class, hosted for the third time in Butler, included 21 students who are police officers, probation officers and counselors in the area, following a national curriculum developed by the Crisis Intervention Team at the University of Memphis in Tennessee.

Peffer said the curriculum out of Tennessee was developed in 1988, and because the Butler course used the university’s curriculum, it was funded through a grant offered by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Crisis intervention teams are trained to handle any variety of crises, and last week’s class focused primarily on mental health crises, which can include suicidal or homicidal thoughts or threats, issues related to post-traumatic stress disorder or hallucinations. But a crisis can be as simple as how somebody reacts to the news of losing a job or a loved one, Peffer said.

How a person responds in a crisis situation can escalate a situation if done wrong, or it can minimize the issue and make sure the situation does not become serious, Peffer said.

“Crisis intervention is trying to catch things before they’re in the worst state,” he said. “It could potentially prevent a situation from becoming that serious.”

When the students left the class Friday afternoon with the certification, they’re identified as people who can be easier to talk to in crisis situations, according to Peffer.

But those students are now better able to recognize and respond to crisis situations, and the training specifically included a number of de-escalation techniques that can help talk a person in crisis down.

In fact, the first tool for crisis intervention is listening, according to a presentation given by Peffer.

“It’s not so much listening to gain knowledge of a crime or to listen so you can end the problem quicker,” he said. “It’s listening to get to the heart of the problem ... and to reflect back to the person that they are being heard, that we know what is causing them the anxiety, the anger, and we want to help with that.

“So those in crisis know this person is hearing me, listening to me, understanding me better.”

Other important things to remember when talking with a person in crisis is to make sure the responder is watching their “nonverbal” language as well, Peffer said.

This includes things like tone, body language and how much empathy the responder shows.

For instance, while some police officers have a tendency to rest their hand on a gun in a holster, a person in crisis may see that as more meaningful than what the first responder wants to convey, Peffer said.

“A person in crisis could realistically see that as a threat,” he said.

That’s what the class is designed to do: make the students aware of how their actions can be perceived and to critically think about how they address a crisis situation.

Another point Peffer was sure to drive home over the five-day course was to not use inflammatory language, especially the word “crazy.”

Once a situation has been diffused and any immediate possible threats addressed, the responder can help the person in crisis come up with a plan, even if it’s small steps like finding a way to get a person back on their medication or arranging to see a counselor, Peffer said.

Ultimately, the course helps students take what they’ve learned back to their respective organizations to implement across the county, Peffer said.

For Katie Ferrer, a crisis supervisor for the Center for Community Resources, the course was helpful to show her how a counselor might respond differently to a crisis than a police officer, she said.

“Our techniques are a little bit different (than law enforcement),” Ferrer said. “We have to do a lot of talking.”

But for a counselor handling crisis situations, it’s important to know how “the other side” works and handles the same situation, she said.

Despite the fact that law enforcement may have the option to use force or arresting powers, the first attempt to handle a crisis is always talking and listening.

Ferrer, who was also joined by fellow crisis supervisor Rich Wozniak, believes the hardest part of handling a crisis is the inability to fix everything completely, she said.

“There’s no one fix-all,” she said. “But we try our hardest, and we provide those resources (people need).”

Wozniak said the crisis program offered by the Center for Community Resources, which is funded by the county, is completely free and runs a 24/7 hot line to talk with specialists whenever a person has a crisis.

If a person feels they are in crisis or knows somebody who is, they can call the hot line at 800-292-3866, Wozniak said.