Serving as a Dublin Police officer comes with the expectation of properly handling sensitive situations. These skills can be especially important for calls to intervene in a mental health crisis.
In many communities, Dublin included, those who struggle with mental illness are not alone. Hundreds of thousands of Ohioans struggle with mental health issues every day.
A study done in February 2021 by the National Alliance on Mental Illness found that roughly half-a-million Ohioans reported symptoms of anxiety and depression and 19 percent said they were unable to get proper treatment.
Without the treatment these individuals need, symptoms and negative behaviors can escalate, sometimes leading to a mental health crisis where the individual puts themselves or others in danger. In these situations, law enforcement is often contacted to intervene.
Calls for police intervention in mental health related situations, often referred to as “wellness checks,” are not unusual for police departments across the country. A study done by the American Psychological Association found that nearly 20 percent of all emergency calls in the U.S. are mental health or substance abuse related.
Greg Lattanzi has experienced these situations firsthand. He has served as an officer with the city of Dublin police department for 17 years and has been the deputy chief of police for more than three.
Lattanzi says all Dublin Police officers undergo 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) to help prepare themselves to manage mental health related calls. During this training course,
mental health clinicians lead presentations and exercises to educate the officers on these type of responses.
“You're exposed to a variety of different situations and scenarios that give the officers an opportunity to interact with individuals to see what works, see what may not work, to ensure that they are communicating in a way that would be effective by gaining feedback from trained mental health professionals in their communication style and their ability to deescalate those situations,” he says.
Even with CIT, Lattanzi believes that while police officers do what they can to deescalate these situations, mental health professionals are best equipped to help the individual in need of treatment.
“From a police department perspective, we understand that responding to mental health crises is part of our duties, but also that there are better resources than the police department to help an individual through a mental health crisis,” he says.
Because of this several people – including members of the city’s police department, Syntero counseling, the Chief’s Advisory Committee, the Community Inclusion Advisory Committee and other mental health resources – have banded together to collectively promote mental health services and foster positive police interactions in the community.
Lattanzi says Dublin is proud to be home to people of many different cultures and backgrounds but navigating cultural differences and beliefs concerning mental health and police interaction can be a challenge.
“Dublin is an extremely diverse community, there's well over 100 languages that are spoken within our school district and we wanted to put something together because mental health is not necessarily viewed the same way throughout every culture,” he said.
To discuss solutions and provide education on this issue, the police department, in partnership with Syntero counseling and the Chief’s Advisory Committee, hosted a town hall focused on mental health and crisis intervention as it relates to cultural differences, last November.
Over 15 mental health resources that serve the central Ohio area were present at the meeting. Some of which offer support specifically for different nationalities, races and minority groups.
“Let's say there was a discussion about depression. Certain languages don't necessarily have words that translate to depression,” Lattanzi says. “An individual who may be struggling with that can talk to somebody about what they're struggling with and best understand what resources are available to them.”
A secondary goal of the town hall was to break down the stigmas surrounding mental illness and seeking treatment.
“We need to normalize the conversation around this for our community and make people comfortable in seeking out the resources that they may need without the fear of judgment,” Lattanzi says.
When proper measures aren’t taken to keep a person suffering from a mental health crisis safe, there can be devastating consequences, including loss of life. According to the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, nearly five people die by suicide in Ohio daily.
Mental health groups in the area and the Dublin police department are all working together to save people one crisis intervention at a time.
“Sometimes when individuals find themselves in a mental health crisis, it does jeopardize their personal safety,” Lattanzi says. “As someone who lost a family member to suicide, I do find that it's important to have this type of conversation in a public venue, because there are individuals that are struggling with mental health, that don't ever talk about it, they don't ever get the help that they need.”
Maisie Fitzmaurice is a contributing writer at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
