ANDERSON COUNTY, Tenn. — For people in a mental health crisis, 911 dispatchers can have a major impact. This is why dispatchers with the Anderson County Sheriff's Office are taking charge of training how to help people in need.
"Last night I actually dealt with two different callers who both had suicidal ideations and that was just in an eight-hour period," Brittany Freni, a third shift dispatcher for ACSO, said.
Through a partnership with NAMI Knoxville, National Alliance on Mental Illness, the dispatchers took a four hour training course where they learned the basics of mental health, what people experiencing auditory hallucinations may be hearing and how to answer calls from people in crisis.
"Understanding the best way to deal with somebody who's in a mental health crisis can make all the difference between somebody having a very bad outcome and somebody being able to get the services they need", Sheryl McCormick, board president of NAMI, said.
McCormick said dispatchers play a vital role for people in crisis.
"One of the things that's really important for a dispatcher is to ask good questions, and to listen really well and then respond based on the answers to the questions," she said.
And the dispatchers agree.
The trainings aren't only helpful for the callers, but for the dispatchers as well.
"Some people may want to harm themselves but some people are not always wanting to end their life, so their is a big difference that we learned about," Olivia Hall, a third shift dispatcher with ACSO, said.
The dispatchers mention how helpful this training was not only to learn a new skill but also on how to care for people who are going through mental illness.
"It was just really eye opening to go through that and hear what they hear on a daily basis and now that we're able to know what they go through we can, I guess, have a little more sympathy for them," Freni said.
If you or someone you know is in a mental health crisis you can call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 988