Columbus Police officer Cody Wooten gives a class on de-escalation and how to respond to calls of people in mental distress during a training session at Evolution Training Center in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Imagine answering hard questions, completing a timed crossword puzzle, or counting several objects on a floor — all while three different voices are being pumped simultaneously into your head.
That is just one of several exercises undertaken by 17 officers from four local law enforcement agencies as Bartholomew County becomes the 12th Indiana county to begin providing Crisis Intervention Training (CIT).
Sgt. Andrew Whipker of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department and Sgt. Alyson Eichel of the Columbus Police Dept. facilitated the 40-hour program for officers from CPD, BCSD, the Columbus Regional Health and the Hope police departments.
The exercise with multiple voices, provided by an MP3 player and headphones, is meant to simulate to a limited degree what someone with schizophrenia might be experiencing,” Whipker said.
After training, an officer should understand they might have to repeat themselves to an individual with schizophrenia because it is extremely difficult for them to give anything their full concentration, he said.
While most of the week-long training is designed to help police officers better understand various forms of mental illness or addiction disorders, participants also learn to better recognize someone who is going through a crisis, Whipker said.
“For example, they may have had a recent death in the family, and are having emotional problems related to unemployment or financial troubles,” Whipker said. “They may not be eating or sleeping, and may have made vague threats of wanting to harm themselves. Now, they might not be in need of immediate hospitalization and treatment, but they could benefit from some other outpatient resource.”
In the past, law enforcement have had encounters individuals suffering from anxiety, depression, economic troubles and fear, but felt there was nothing they could do with them, he said.
But that has begun to change now that Bartholomew County has developed a Crisis Intervention Training team that includes nonprofits, mental health professionals and law enforcement representatives who meet on a monthly basis, Eichel said.
“This type of communication hasn’t existed between law enforcement and the mental health community in Bartholomew County since – probably forever,” Whipker said. “It’s brought a lot of change for the good.”
Referrals and counseling
Once an officer completes CIT training, he or she will be allowed to make referrals for outpatient counseling or therapy, he added.
“So it’s not like ‘hey, sorry that you are going through this – but I don’t know what to do for you’,” Whipker said. “Now, it’s like ‘I know exactly what I can do for you. We have agencies that specialize in your situation’.”
A key to the success of a CIT program is establishing strong relationships between officers and mental health professionals that enable them to rely on each other, Whipker and Eichel said.
It’s now estimated that one out of five Americans is suffering from a diagnosable mental illness, Eichel said. That’s why the training largely focuses on understanding mild, moderate and severe forms of mental illness, as well as the best ways to de-escalate a potentially dangerous situation with those suffering from severe psychological problems.
Both Eichel and Whipker say they agree that the vast majority of people with mental health problems (about one in five) are no more likely to be violent than anyone else.
Only three to five percent of violent acts can be attributed to individuals living with a serious mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). A much larger problem is that people with severe mental illnesses are more than 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than the general population, the NAMI website states.
“One of our goals is to deter people away from the criminal justice system,” Eichel said. “There are a lot of situations where we come in contact with individuals where they may have committed a crime, but it’s related to a mental health issue. We would rather get them the help they need, rather than place them into the criminal justice system.”
From learning about behaviors associated with certain mental illnesses, trainees discover that while mental illness can take on an aggressive appearance, physical force isn’t always needed, Eichel said. Sometimes, that person just needs to vent, she said.
“We just had an instructor for traumatic brain injuries mention that sufferers might have symptoms where they act out, appear manic, get angry, scream and yell,” Eichel said. “For us, it’s nice to have the symptoms, so we’re not just becoming experts in de-escalation, but also in the types of mental illnesses we might encounter.”
If a person’s behavior is not a danger to anyone, an officer can take their time to deal with mental health issues as they come up, Whipker said.
“Personally, I’d rather spend two hours assisting someone, rather that say ‘sorry, I can’t help you’ – and be done in five minutes,” Whipker said. “I’d rather spend the time up front, so we are not continuing to have to deal with these same individuals – whether they are suicidal or facing a temporary crisis – over and over again.”
While Eichel says the goal of crisis intervention is to use the least amount of force as possible, Whipker says there will continue to be situations when force is necessary. He’s referring to circumstances when a person leaves law enforcement no choice but to use physical restraint, or it appears the individual is about to harm themselves or somebody else.
Although the goal is to get as many police officers in Bartholomew County trained in crisis intervention, the training is not mandatory and enrollment is strictly on a volunteer basis, Whipker said. He allows that this specialized training and the communication it requires doesn’t fit every officer’s personality.
But Eichel says there is a lot of interest in this type of training among both officers and administrators.
“I think we have a variety of officers across all shifts in each department, so that there will be a CIT (crisis intervention) officer working somewhere in the county at all times,’ she said.
