Martin County Sheriff concerned about mental health crisis – cw34.com

STUART, Fla. (CBS12)

Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told Martin County Commissioners his department is trying to deal with a crisis of mental illness in the community.

During a presentation to county commissioners Tuesday morning, Sheriff Snyder said between January 1, 2019, and April 30, 2021, the sheriffs office responded to 2,358 calls directly related to a mental health crisis of some kind.

That is an awful lot of calls for service, Snyder said.

He said the average incidents per month involving mental health crisis has increased, from 83 in 2020 to 93 in 2021.

The sheriffs office will handle 1,116 projected calls for service involving a mental health issue in 2021.

Snyder said the Martin County Jail has evolved into the largest mental health facility in the county.

Theres nowhere we can bring anybody. Theres no real solution that we know of. Ive had 5 deputies in the last few months thatve pulled triggers and shot people, all with mental illness and thats despite all of our best efforts, Snyder said.

He said theyre looking at coming up with a different way to respond to calls that may involve someone with a mental illness. Often he says, if a person in a mental health crisis sees someone in a uniform with a badge, it makes matters worse.

If we can put together a different way to respond to these calls, whether it be an unmarked car, deputies that are probably wearing a sports coatfully armedand then can I have first responders, civilians who have better training than we can ever get, psychologists, experts in the field, can they co-respond? Can we call them to the scene to help stabilize and to help us think through what are the right steps? Snyder told commissioners.

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Martin County Sheriff concerned about mental health crisis - cw34.com