Officers undergo "mental" training
 by Shae Crisson

(11/27/07 – RALEIGH NC) - Law enforcement officers from across the state are going through unique training to learn how to deal with mentally ill patients.

 Officers expect to have more encounters with people dealing with mental health issues when Dorothea Dix, the state's largest mental hospital, closes in Raleigh next year. The first ever statewide Crisis Intervention Team training was held at the McKimmon Conference Center in Raleigh today. The seminar focused on the challenges mentally ill patients face and the burden they can place on hospital and jails if they don't get the proper care that they need. During a "Hearing Voices" seminar, Wake County Sheriff's Deputy Jack Hendrix wore headphones and listened to a cd that simulates the voices that a schizophrenic patient experiences. Hendrix had a tough time concentrating during a reading exercise, he had trouble listening to someone giving him directions and had difficulty focusing while role playing during mental health evaluation.

"You were hearing different voices telling you different things to do some of them were background noises it was just distracting," he said.

Hendrix says he's encountered disoriented patients before, "normally they're confused they have voices telling you different things, normally they share experiences that are far fetched, they hear things that are not there and you just have to establish a rapport and then you have to get them somewhere for help."

But help can be difficult to find and could become even harder in the near future. There could be a two year gap between the time Dorothea Dix closes and a new facility opens in Butner. Hendrix calls it a, "Mental health crisis." He says he already spends a full-shift on some occasions getting a patient to a facility with a bed available. "Usually they have to go to a bed often in another county and usually we have to transport them to that facility so it is time consuming sometimes it can take an entire shift which takes you away from doing other law enforcement functions for the citizens," Hendrix said.

But getting patients to the right place can ease overcrowding in hospital emergency rooms and jails where Hendrix says so many mentally ill people are currently ending up.