Sheriff’s Office Adapts Training to Meet the Needs of Our Community and Persons Experiencing a Mental Health Crisis
Your Spokane County Sheriff’s Office is dedicated to enhancing responses to persons in the community who are experiencing a mental health crisis. These responses are common for law enforcement, occurring daily, and can be very complex situations.
To provide the highest level of service possible to the members of our community in crisis, we recognized the need for adaptive training to meet these specific needs. This new and adaptive training will provide our Deputies with specific information, giving them additional tools to address the complex and challenging situations they face appropriately.
Starting this year, new roll call training will focus on the most common questions asked by deputies when responding to a crisis or other situations, providing invaluable knowledge while increasing safety and efficiency.
Training will cover topics such as diversion from hospital emergency departments, connection to resources in the community through referrals, response to common behaviors seen in a mental health crisis, and others, as new topics are identified. The training is facilitated by a new online interactive learning platform that makes training more approachable, cost-effective, and keeps deputies on patrol while enhancing service. The goal of this training is to increase safety, redirect, and connect persons in crisis to entry points for available resources and services in our community.
Additionally, despite staffing limitations while an influx of new Deputies are being trained, the Spokane County Sheriffs Office is approaching the state recommendation that 25% of patrol deputies take a 40-hour Crisis Intervention Team training course. The week-long class provides in-depth training on recognition and responses to persons experiencing a mental health crisis. The Sheriff’s Office also complies with the state mandates requiring all peace officers to complete an 8-hour crisis intervention class, and a yearly 2-hour crisis intervention refresher class.
If you or someone you know needs support while experiencing a crisis, please call the regional crisis line at 1-877-266-1818 or 911 if it is an emergency.