KCCI.com, IA
03-08-07
Officers Get Trained On Understanding Mental Illness
Group Works To Inform Law Enforcement
AMES, Iowa -- Law enforcement agents got a lesson Wednesday on mental illness from those who live with it every day.
More and more often, officers are finding themselves in situations involving people with a mental illness.
NewsChannel 8's Angie Hunt sat in on a special training session for law enforcement agents.
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It's part of a weeklong Crisis Intervention Basic Training School, and officers learned directly from those who have found themselves in a crisis situation.
Officers never know what they'll find or have to deal with when responding to a call for help.
"Because of cutbacks in the mental health system and difficulties with third-party payer system(s), law enforcement becomes the only after-hours social service that are available in many communities in Iowa and across the nation," said Iowa
State University police commander Gene Deisinger.
That makes it critical for officers to learn how to diffuse situations or identify when a person suffers from a mental illness.
Officers learned from those who live with illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
Each of the actors who worked in the training session are with the group Stigma
Busters and they have some form of mental illness. The group works to get others to understand it's just like any other disease.
"It is a medical condition that people with a mental illness don't have control over it and they shouldn't be discriminated against because of it," said Todd Reinders, who lives will a mental illness.
Officers said that it's a lot easier to understand mental illness when people put themselves in the other person's shoes.

"You find out that they're people just like everybody else, except they might think things a little differently," said Craig McKinney of the Story County Sheriff's
Office. "Whenever you can put yourself in that situation, it's easier to deal with."
A few of the actors with Stigma Busters shared their own personal experiences they have had with law enforcement. Most were positive.
They all agreed that it helps when an officer understands mental illness.
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