Greenfield police host youth mental health workshop

Any longtime officer will tell you the streets have changed. Now more than ever police are dealing with suspects with mental illness.

“We meet people on the street who tell us that they are addicted to drugs rather than admitting that they suffer from some type of mental illness because there’s still some degree of social stigma,” said Greenfield Police Chief Adele Frese.

To change that stigma, the Greenfield Police Department hosted an emotional health workshop to educate teens and parents on early signs of mental illness Wednesday.

“Usually there’s signs of depression, isolation and anxiety. Sometimes kids act out in school so their behavior tends to be disruptive in the school setting at times,” said Deanna Rivas with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Monterey County.

Rivas said most people start developing mental health illnesses before the age of 15 and most parents have no idea.

“Usually some of the misconceptions is they will get over it, or it’s a phase, or it’s just part of growing up,” said Rivas.

But often, if not treated it can get worse and possibly lead to a life on the streets.

According to NAMI, each year $2 million in jail bookings involve a person with mental illness. 15 percent of men and 30 percent of women in local jails have a serious mental illness and 1 in 4 people killed in officer-involved shootings also suffers.

“At a younger age, if we start talking about this, I think it will make it much better in the future…we want to be there at the preventative side, rather than at the enforcement side,” said Frese.

Frese said recently a handful of officers went through mental health training to teach them how to respond to someone suffering from a mental health illness.