COMMERCE CITY —A disgruntled woman was sprawled on the floor of a room in the Adams County Sheriff’s Office in Commerce City with a tequila bottle in her shaking hand. Rogelio Garcia, a probation officer with the county, crouched down to her level.
“Dorothy,” Garcia said. “Please put the bottle down. I need you to try and focus on me.”
Over the next several minutes, Garcia would try and figure out what kind of mental crisis the uncooperative Dorothy, who was actually an actress named Angela Blake, was going through.
The simulation was part of a weeklong — or CIT — course offered to probation officers in Adams County to help them respond to a client who is experiencing a mental health crisis.
The course is free through the Community Reach Center, a nonprofit mental health provider with five outpatient offices in Adams County. It was originally designed to teach police officers and criminal justice professionals how to recognize and handle a mental health crisis in the field.
“I go out and see about 20 clients on a weekly basis for things like employment checks,” said Garcia, who has been a probation officer with the county for 10 years. “I’m always working with clients who have problems with drug use as well as depression and anxiety. This training was valuable because I got experience on how to deal with things I’ve never run into, like psychosis.”
Mary Ann Hewicker is the crisis intervention team coordinator for the Community Reach Center and has been teaching the classes in Adams County for about 12 years. Last week, she hosted the second course for probation officers. About 21 were trained.
“Probation officers really go to a person’s work or home to check on them,” Hewicker said. “CIT helps all criminal justice professionals interact with individuals who may be experiencing a mental health crisis or mental illness … with the goal of minimizing the use of force by increasing interventions and communication.”
The Community Reach Center also holds one-day mental health first aid classes that teach regular citizens to identify, understand and respond to those who are experiencing a behavioral health crisis.
The class covers depression, anxiety disorders, psychosis and substance use disorders. The course is free for anyone who lives or works in Adams County — otherwise the registration fee is $35.
“We’re also going to come up with a three-day, middle ground class — something more than mental health first aid but not as much as CIT,” Hewicker said. “We need something between one-day mental health training and the full-blown CIT for the criminal justice population.”
Brian Trujillo, a Commerce City police officer who has coached and instructed crisis intervention classes for five years, said the training that criminal justice professionals receive on mental health crisis intervention is valuable for everyone.
“These people are still going through the justice system, dealing with these demons on their back, and they need to be identified and understood all the way though the process,” Trujillo said. ” The more people who are trained for that, the better.”
He said that there have been several instances where he’s successfully used crisis intervention training to calm and help people attempting to commit suicide.
“It’s a communications class more than anything,” Trujillo said. “It’s teaches how to build report, to listen, and to figure out the situation and how best to help and earn trust. It’s crucial to understanding and diffusing these kinds of situations.”
Megan Mitchell: 303-954-2650, mmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Mmitchelldp
