GEORGETOWN, Ky. (LEX 18) — For decades, the conversation around mental health has been a taboo subject, but in recent years, those conversations have become more prevalent.
From dementia to autism and even diabetes. It's not just the community educating themselves but police departments, too.
The conversation around mental health, most specifically dementia, began after three Danville police officers were seen pushing to the ground and hitting a 66-year-old Danville man in a Walmart.
“We bring in a community mental health team that we developed back in 2017 to kind of mitigate critical incidents with individuals," said Lieutenant Mitchell Lair with Georgetown Police Department. “Most people in the state are in the CIT or Crisis Intervention Team model. That starts in the basic academy training of course."
The CIT model, also known as the "Memphis Model," is to help train law enforcement and other professionals and families on how to improve community response to mental health crises. It helps to advocate for the needs of services and strengthens partnerships in the community.
“All about educating the world on what dementia looks like and what kind of things can make that interaction go better," said Adria Thompson, who is the founder of 'Be Light Care' and is a speech pathologist at EKU.
Lair says Georgetown Police's model is to learn, apply, and grow. It's important to them to be for the people.
It also uses other programs like advanced CIT and DOCJT (Department of Criminal Justice Training), a Special Response Team, and community partners to advocate for victims. Its therapy dog, Kate, is also available for both officers and victims.
Lare says the officers need to be there for themselves so they can be there for the community. The department has a peer support team and uses aLexiPol appfor its officers to make sure they have the resources necessary after difficult calls.
Each month, the Georgetown Police hosts meetings to discuss tactics that may or may not have worked and how they go about correcting those situations. They invite other departments to these meetings to help educate them on scenarios as well.
“We have different other community members that come in and want to talk about autism or different other disabilities. In which we need to be aware of and know how to communicate better with those folks, so we can bring that crisis down to a more standard level," explains Lare.
LEX 18 called 22 police departments in our viewing area. All of them follow the standard CIT program. However, we only got a response from half of the departments regarding programs they utilize outside of CIT.
Departments that use resources outside of CIT:
- Lexington
- Nicholasville
- Georgetown
- Richmond
- Winchester
- Frankfort
- Berea
- Paris
- Versailles
- Wilmore
The programs/resources the other departments utilize:
- Advanced CIT
- Crisis Paramedicine Program
- Annual training on timely topics
- Community Crisis Co-Response Team
- Community Partners
- Baptist Health: Thrive
- Trained negotiations with FBI
- Victims Advocates
- KY League of Cities training
- PMAM HCM (tracks training)
“I think in society, we’ve gotten better about conversations around mental health and neuro-divergence, so when people are a little different than what we consider normal. But I don’t think that conversation has gotten to the point of discussing dementia yet," explains Thompson.
Thompson has worked with hundreds of people with dementia. She says cases of dementia will double in the next 30 years.
“We often think about communication as talking, but sometimes people with dementia talk just fine it’s just that their comprehension has been affected," details Thompson. “So there’s a reflex that happens in dementia and by reflex I mean an involuntary movement that they cannot control and it’s called Paratonia.”
Paratonia is defined as an active resistance against passive movement. “When someone is putting their hands on a person with dementia, and they feel resistance. That might not necessarily be willful intent, that could be a neurogoloical reflex that they cannot control.”
“Our nations kind of been crippled in, you know, how much law enforcement should be involved [in mental health crises calls]. I think that’s the big question and the main thing is being able to get that training. Being able to get that training before, after and during. Not just for the public but for the law enforcement official themselves. Makes that a safer community," said Lare.
