Charlotte County deputies hold training for mental health encounters

Charlotte County deputies are entering the community equipped with a new tool for handling mental health: crisis initiative training.

Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell brought his grandson to work on Friday, the same day he rolled out some new specially designed cars to increase autism awareness in the community.

“It’s personal to me. I have a 4-year-old grandson who’s autistic,” Prummell said. “He’s a great little kid. He loves to play; he loves his momma, but at times, he needs a little more attention. You need to take your time to communicate a little bit more to get your point across and to understand them, and he’s a great kid.”

Prummell hopes his deputies and the public will take some time to become more sensitive to the needs of people of all ages who live with autism.

“It’s very important we all understand each other and help one another,” he said.

In Punta Gorda, a group of Prummell’s deputies graduated on Friday from crisis intervention training, which is designed to make them more aware of and able to identify substance abuse and mental health issues in the people they are called to help.

The week-long class teaches law enforcement how to approach and help people with addictions, people suffering from mental illness who are in crisis and about alternatives to jail that might be more appropriate.

Both the autism awareness program and the crisis initiative training give law enforcement a broader range of tools to address different groups of people and situations they are likely to encounter, with an understanding that jail isn’t always the right response for someone in crisis.