This month is Mental Health Awareness Month. But, for the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office, every month has mental health awareness built into their response teams. According to Lt. Matt Wurtz, who serves as the Training Officer for the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office, much attention has been given to train law enforcement members in Habersham County in how to appropriately respond to those who suffer from mental illness. And the goal of the training is to help officers have the skills to de-escalate tense situations, especially those with the mentally ill.
Georgia Crisis Intervention Team training for de-escalation
According to Wurtz, training in the department for working with the mentally ill is not new but has garnered increased attention over the past years. In 2013, the sheriff’s office received its state accreditation which required specialized training for response teams. In 2017, while in office, Governor Nathan Deal issued an initiative that tasked law enforcement agencies with training officers in diversity and cultural awareness as they worked to de-escalate tense situations. Out of the initiative, a state-wide team that could develop and lead that specialized training was developed.
That team, the Georgia Crisis Intervention Team, is based on the desire to equip state law enforcement officers “with the skills to assist people with mental illness, co-occurring disorders, substance abuse, developmental disorders or other brain disorders who are in crisis, thereby advancing public safety and reducing stigma.” The goal is to make sure that the mentally ill receive appropriate treatment and can be kept out of incarceration if possible.
Wurtz is actually one of nine officers in the state who make up the Georgia Crisis Intervention Team (GCIT). The team offers training at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth as well as through regional enforcement clinics. The training takes forty hours in one week and includes both in-class and situational training. The program has become so important to state law enforcement that all new recruits go through the week-long program after they’ve completed eleven weeks of basic police training.
Habersham County Sheriff’s Office has embraced CGIT and currently has nine officers who have completed the training. Kevin Angell, the Sheriff’s Office Public Information Office, says that “all deputies go through additional training each year to be reminded on how to act, react, and counteract with someone who is mentally ill.”
Wurtz points out, “There are different levels of mental illness. Some people suffer from a moment or a short period of time in which they struggle mentally, while others have a life-long mental illness.” Angell, one of the nine county officers who has completed the CGIT training, states, “CGIT creates a baseline of how to deal with everyone officers encounter when responding to call outs and accidents.”
Computer-generated simulator for situational training
Wurtz also oversees the use of arms training through the on-site computer-generated simulator. The simulator takes two officers to run. One is at the keyboard, controlling the computerized scenario and responding to it in real time. The officer at the keyboard can make the situation escalate in tension and risk to help the trainee put learned skills of de-escalation into practice or make the situation de-escalate to help the trainee see how the skills practice can help resolve a situation.
Finding help for the mentally ill
Regionally, there are multiple offerings for finding help for the mentally ill. Click here to access the sheriff’s office list of area resources.
