MANSFIELD — The man being booked into the Richland County Jail believed he was former President Barack Obama’s daughter, demanding diplomatic immunity.
A Shelby fire captain responded to the report of man suffering a heart attack at a crowded store, only to ask questions and determine it was a panic attack.
Mansfield police responded to a man on a bridge, preventing a suicidal leap.
It was all part of the Crisis Intervention Team mental health scenario role-plays on Friday morning at the Mansfield Playhouse as 14 new first-responders earned their graduation pins.
The training, sponsored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Richland County and the Richland County Mental Health & Recovery Services Board, has graduated more than 500 law enforcement officers and other first-responders since it began more than a decade ago.
The 40 hours of training, done twice each year, culminates with actors from the Mansfield Playhouse playing out different scenarios to which the participants must respond. The class on Friday was the 23rd group to graduate.
“We throw a lot of information at them in the first four days,” said Joe Trolian, executive director of the Richland County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board.
“(The role-plays) is where they get to demonstrate what they have learned. It seems to be where the big impact is,” Trolian said.
The scenarios are realistic, according to Trolian, who said the CIT training has had a broad impact across the county.
“There is not a shift of any law enforcement office in Richland County that does not have CIT officers on it,” he said.
“At this point, every one of the scenarios we use, if (I was) pressed and was willing to violate confidentiality, I could tell you who the people were who were actually involved in these scenarios,” Trolian said. “These actors are great at improv. If anything, they take the scenarios to a whole new level.”
Mary Kay Pierce, executive director of the NAMI local office, said the law enforcement community’s commitment to the program has deepened over the years due to its success.
“They have seen it work. They realize the need to have extra tools. We’re not telling law enforcement how to do their job. We just give them hints on how to deal with people who may have mental illness and how best to approach those people,” she said.
“CIT is not just a training. It’s a philosophy, a program and a commitment to bring mental health and law enforcement and all first responders in our community together and we want it to last,” Piece said.
“It’s all working together more than I have ever seen before in the 20 years I have been involved in the local mental health community,” she said.
Five of those who graduated on Friday work for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, including a deputy, three corrections officers and a 911 dispatcher.
Sheriff’s Dept. Maj. Joe Masi said the training is crucial for a department that interacts with the public 24 hours a day.
“A lot of times, when people call us, they are in some kind of a crisis,” Masi said. “It’s up to us in those situations to have an intervention with them and to try to de-escalate the situation. We need these skills to make that happen.
“We like to be a resource for those people, build a rapport and to try to help get them pointed in the right direction. We want to help get them the medical care they need,” Masi said.
Graduating on Friday were:
Mansfield Police Department — Officers Joshua Anderson, Jordan Moore and Jacob Oblak
Shelby Fire Department — Capt. Bob Deane
Richland County Sheriff’s Department –Deputy Randolph Sampsel; corrections officers Stephen McDonnell, Charles Scruggs and Brent White; dispatcher Dusty Pauley
Ohio Health Protective Services — Dennis Ginley, Dakota Maxwell and Christian Reed
Adult Parole Authority — Parole/Probation officers Russell Daubenspeck and William Kent Jr.
