by David van Risseghem Tulsa - I've been very busy the past few weeks. As well as being an activist and journalist, I am an advocate for a better public policy on mental illness. It is a huge issue with massive needs. But we measure success in baby steps. The Tulsa County Jail's new mental health unit is one of those baby steps. As a member of NAMI Tulsa, I reached out to Sheriff Regalado and his medical staff(Turnkey) about the matter and we offered help. They finally completed the state-of-the-art mental health pods and the new medical services contractor has set up operations. Richardo Vaca is the lead detention officer for the mental health unit. Former interim sheriff, Michelle Robinette is the new director of mental health. They asked our trained intructors to assist them in training their new cadets and select current officers in a program called Crisis Intervention Training. We currently provide this help to various law enforcement personel, statewide. But detention officers rarely recieve this insightful instruction. A big part of what we provide is insight after-the-fact from individuals and their family members, about what went wrong(or right) during their psychotic break. We talk openly about the PTSD caused by law enforcement conflict during a mental meltdown, and how to safely avoid injury or death; and how to speed up recovery through proactive measures. |
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Sooner Politics
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