Mental Health Awareness: Law enforcement on front lines with mentally ill

Many times law enforcement officers are the first people a mentally ill person comes in contact with. In South Lake Tahoe, police officers and sheriff's deputies are forced to become front line mental health workers, and since they are on the front lines, Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) is an important part of their job.

El Dorado County received a grant for the Sheriff's Department to receive the training, and, to date, four sergeants and 18 deputies have been trained. While most patrol the west slope, South Lake Tahoe has three CIT officers (two sergeants and one deputy).

They are trained in de-escalating situations, trained to intervene before a crisis.

In a recent situation a mentally ill person barricaded himself in a building and EDSO deputies responded. One of the deputies was on the CIT team and had a previous rapport with the man and was able to avert a more serious situation.

"It's all about relationships," said Lt. Bryan Golmitz who is currently in the South Lake Tahoe office. "It's about building trust. We're in the people business."

In 2014, El Dorado County received 38,248 emergency calls (county wide) and 1,678 were mental health related. That is 4.5 calls a day on an average. Of those, 436 were determined to need hospitalization.

Sergeant Michael Seligsohn is one of the county's trained CIT officers. He keeps track of all known mentally ill patients he and the deputies come across in the area. They'll contact the people to check in and see how they're doing from time to time. "Some need more contact so the deputies will visit with them," Seligsohn said. "They develop positive relationships so they can intervene before the negative happens."

Both Seligsohn and Golmitz said its all about understanding mental illness. Ambulances are called to take people with all other organ issues to the hospital, but when that organ happens to be the brain, law enforcement is called.

Jeanne Nelson of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) said they know that the El Dorado County Sheriff is very committed to training more deputies in CIT (Crisis Intervention Training.) "This is very appreciated," Nelson said. "We would like to see a commitment that indicates a CIT trained deputy will be available with every shift." The county will hold several hours of the training sessions in August.

"It is common in larger counties such as Carson City, NV or San Mateo, CA to provide a mobile outreach safety team comprised of trained social workers that call on at-risk individuals to proactively de-escalate risk situations often in partnership with law enforcement," said Nelson.

She has a personal experience with law enforcement being on the front lines with the mentally ill. A police officer realized a problem with her son and took him to a very necessary psychiatric hold "that helped save his life." Now, just two years later and a great deal of excellent treatment for severe mental illness, he works full-time in a job he loves and lives independently. "He is smiling again and managing his illness well," said Nelson.

In the past two months, the South Lake Tahoe Police Department has responded to 26 calls of a mentally disturbed person. According to SLTPD Sgt. David Stevenson, officers respond and analyze the situation. While they haven't received CIT, they are trained on how to handle interactions with the mentally ill. If the person is determined to be having a mental situation, they'll transport them to Barton Hospital. Doctors in the emergency room will determine if the patient needs to be placed on a 72-hour hold.