Sheriff's request for Crisis Intervention Officer approved

In one fell swoop, the Putnam County Commissioners and Putnam County Sheriff Jerrod Baugh both worked Monday to address a serious need in Putnam County.

The need?

Tackling mental health, and it will be done with a Crisis Intervention Officer, which the Commissioners approved Monday morning. 

"We have a great group in county government that worked with me, giving me guidance and this is something that has been on my radar for some time. I have always known of larger cities to have one or a Crisis Intervention Team, and now we have one," Baugh told The Putnam County Post. 

The Crisis Intervention Officer will be paid by opioid grant funds, according to Baugh.

"Funding always causes issues and applications of those professionals. We don't have any buildings that handle 24 hour a day, 7 days a week mental health emergencies. As a result, we, in law enforcement, have dealt with those issues since the beginning of time. We handle those with emergency detentions and we would have to wake the judges up in the middle of the night, give a quick report and take them either east or west. We have always saddled this with law enforcement," Baugh said. 

Baugh said he would see more responsibility being put on young officers to put someone in a mental health facility, and he didn't like it.

"I didn't like it. We pushed in our house and it is going to take an individual to spearhead this and make sure to work with everyone. I will prove we will probably need another. I don't think some people realize until they see these numbers," Baugh said. 

The sheriff said Putnam County is ninth in the state out of 92 counties for successful suicides. In his first year as Sheriff, Baugh said Putnam County had 160 suicide calls, 134 last year and 91 already this year. 

"This is not something the Sheriff wants. Oh no, this is something Putnam County needs, and I saw it as such. This is an opportunity for the sheriff's office to deputize a mental health worker or social worker. I am looking for a mental health professional I can give police powers to. I am not looking for a police officer I can give mental health powers to. Putnam County needs this. Not only are we ninth in the state in suicides, if you go through our dispatch, this person can go to drug overdose calls and have contacts that 35 police officers in Putnam County may not," Baugh acknowledged. 

Baugh said the process of finding a Crisis Intervention Officer has now begun and picking the right person and giving them the right equipment and training falls on his shoulders.

"We will document successes and failures. When we have failures, we will fix them. We will work very hard to see this through. I don't think we will be able to have a team because we don't have a facility. This will be someone in a golf shirt and bluejeans walking up to have a conversation on the scene with someone. We will be able to have this person on call, and I am excited to add this position. Our law enforcement officers are not seeing less calls and less to do. If we get a call to a city park where a person has broken their leg and we see a foot pointing the wrong way, we know we have professionals on the way. Mental health, to this point, is not it. We are standing on a porch with someone who has threatened to kill themselves or their family and we are thinking how we can get this person in handcuffs and in our car without breaking them or having them break us. In the future, this program will be the same as a broken leg, in that we can hold until we get the Crisis Intervention Officer to the scene and we can tell the person someone is coming," Baugh said. 

Baugh said if people can get help, not get hurt and first responders do not get hurt, the program will be a success. He also said he will prove that another officer will be needed in the future. 

"To send to 160 calls a year, just for suicide calls, that is above a volunteer. We want this position to be a mental health professional. I want this person to be well trained and well equipped to prepare handle it, and that is my job. It could fail, and it will have bumps, but I think in the long run, it will get better and we will make the changes and do whatever it takes to get it done. Our deputies and city officers will have someone they know they can trust that will be coming to assist. We've got our fingers crossed. It is a little luck and a whole lot of work going into this. In a year from now, we will be sitting here talking about how this is a benefit to people in need, a benefit to the community and we will probably have to start another position not because I want to, but because we will need to," Baugh said.