Law enforcement receive mental health training

Law enforcement personnel are participating in a Mental Health First Aid training Wednesday.

Taught by the National Alliance of Mental Health, or NAMI, the training aims to help law enforcement improve their understanding of how to respond to and negotiate with people with mental illness, and to give them tools to handle mental health emergency situations.

“More and more, we a facing people that face a variety of mental illness or mental crisis situations they’re very, anxious, many times riled up, and we want to have multiple tools to deal with people like that, rather than resorting to traditional tactics, excessive force, something like that,” Colorado Springs Police Department Commander Pat Rigdon said.

CSPD, El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and Fountain Police Department participated. It was made possible by funding from Mental Health First Aid Colorado, the Colorado State Office of Behavioral Health, Peak View Behavioral Health and Bank of Colorado.

This program was geared toward law enforcement, but NAMI offers Mental Health First Aid training to anyone interested. Click here for more information.