NEWTON, Iowa — While most students are enjoying their summer vacations, some Iowa first responders are heading back to class a bit early.
In Jasper County, law enforcement and first responders from around Central Iowa came together to tackle a new challenge—learning how to best help Iowans dealing with mental health crises, without making a potentially volatile situation worse.
The first session, which took place on July 18, had first responders from the Polk County Sheriff's Office, Waukee Police and even the Iowa State police. The trainings are sponsored by Central Iowa Community Services.
"Normally, when law enforcement are called, they're probably called when it's already escalated, but really learning the approaches to take with people to help to help to bring down the escalation," said Patti Treibel-Leeds, Planning & Development Officer with CICS.
Between July 2022 and the end of June 2023, there will be 16 more sessions. While it's impossible to prepare for every situation, the trainings are intended to give responders extra options in their tool belt.
"Best ways to approach them, best ways to initiate conversation with people. So we're just hoping that they just can pull something out of their belt when they need it," Treibel-Leeds said.
All those trainings are addressing a major need. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in four Iowans with a serious mental illness has been arrested at some point in their lifetime. Additionally, two out of every five inmates in jail or prison have a history with mental illness.
Treibel-Leeds hopes that the new trainings can help create better outcomes to those sorts of situations.
"Our goal, hopefully, is to eliminate that kind of thing and and eliminate maybe jail time for individuals that really need the mental health treatment and help," she said.
According to NAMI, there's about 473,000 adults in the Hawkeye state who have a mental health condition.