Burns Harbor police officers regularly encounter people with some type of mental illness.
“The threats of suicide, the schizophrenia, where they think someone’s chasing them and show up at the police department,” Chief Mike Heckman said.
On Feb. 13, officers from Burns Harbor and elsewhere received training at the police station about how to help the mentally ill in a program offered through Porter-Starke Services and paid for with a federal grant secured by the Porter County Substance Abuse Council.
The program offers first aid of sorts for mental health, said Kyle Otten, director of experiential therapy for Porter-Starke and a training instructor.
“This is to help people who might be developing a mental health disorder or developing a mental health crisis,” Otten said of the training’s focus on depression, anxiety, psychosis and substance abuse disorder. “An officer is often the first person on the scene who gets called. How can they help someone having a mental health crisis?”
The council received the three-year grant, which provides $125,000 each year, from the federal Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, said Kaitlyn Griffin, the council’s training coordinator. The funds became available in October, and is being used for training police officers and school personnel for grades K-12 and college.
“A lot of people don’t really know how to deal with people in a mental health crisis,” Griffin said, adding the training, part of a pilot program, instructs what to do immediately and how to get patients the long-term assistance and treatment they need.
“It’s reducing the stigma and eliminating some of the barriers” to treatment, she said.
About 300 people a year are expected to be trained through Porter-Starke. Officials from Burns Harbor, Ogden Dunes, Portage and the Porter County Coroner’s Office also attended the initial training.
Much as medics rely on CPR when someone is having a heart attack, Otten said, ALGEE is the equivalent for mental health issues. The acronym stands for assessing the risk for suicide or harm; listening in a non-judgmental way; giving reassurance and necessary information; encouraging appropriate professional help; and encouraging self-help and other support strategies.
The training for law enforcement also focuses on officers taking care of each other, Otten said, because of the stress level of their jobs.
The Burns Harbor Police Department already offers training in mental health issues, Heckman said, but the new program is particularly helpful for younger officers.
“If someone is saying they want to die, you’ve got to get them help and for some of our younger guys, it’s going to be a very good tool for them,” he said.
Heckman recalled an instance in which a person showed up at the police station claiming to be a victim of a violent crime and theft. In the next four hours, Heckman learned the person had been kicked out of several places because of mental illness, and he was able to get the person hospitalized.
“That was a trying time,” he said.
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
