Covington police officers have “led the way” with NAMI and implemented their training on mental health issues

Covington police officers literally “walked the path of compassion” at the annual MANI Walks event on Saturday, working with the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) and CIT Northern Kentucky (Crisis Intervention Training) for the annual event ) together.

The walk in Pioneer Park takes place every year to mark Mental Health Awareness Week.

“Current and retired members of the Covington Police Department (were) excited to participate in the NAMI Walk and support NAMI’s mission to raise awareness so that all individuals and families affected by mental illness can build better lives,” said Covington Deputy Police Chief Matthew Winship.

Trained with compassion

For some members of the Covington department, the walk capped a week-long effort to gain deeper insight and insight into the individuals they often encounter in their work who struggle with mental and medical illnesses.

Throughout the week, Northern Kentucky police officers and local mental health professionals participated in Crisis Intervention Team (CIT Northern Kentucky) training. CIT, also known as the “Memphis Model,” was developed in 1988 and has since expanded to more than 2,700 communities across the country. The program’s training creates connections between law enforcement, mental health providers, hospital emergency services, and individuals with mental illness and their families. It gives police officers important tools to do their jobs safely and effectively, while helping to keep people with mental illness out of prison and in treatment.

On Tuesday, 35 local law enforcement officers gathered in a room at the Boone County Sheriff’s Office in Burlington to hear Winship’s talk. For the past 11 years he has taught the “Four Step Process” for de-escalating crisis situations, illustrating the effectiveness and impact of the CIT processes, which involve remaining calm, examining a person in crisis, to assess and support. He teaches by sharing first-hand examples.

“It gives the program credibility, and I’m proud to stand in front of a class, tell my story and influence someone else,” said Winship, who said the program provides Covington officials with important tools.

“I am incredibly proud that we have trained more than 80 officers,” Winship said. “It’s not uncommon for me to hear stories about our officers who have used the skills they learned in CIT, and being a human being is what CIT is all about – how to treat another human being with respect and compassion circumvents our department’s core values; Compassion and respect as a human being, not just a diagnosis.”

This compassion and the tools officers learn in CIT training are important to mothers like Martie Rhoden Bessler.

“My child didn’t ask for it”

In 2001, Derrick Rhoden, a high school freshman and Bessler’s son, was a standout basketball player at Bishop Brossart High School. Standing 7-foot-1 and weighing 250 pounds, Derrick was a top talent on the court who caught the attention of Division 1 scouts and was selected to the Kentucky High School All-Star team. He traveled there with players like Rajon Rondo, who later played point guard for the University of Kentucky Wildcats before being drafted by the NBA’s Phoenix Suns.

But in 2001, shortly before Derrick’s second basketball season, he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a serious and chronic neurological disorder that primarily affects young people in their mid- to late teens with symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The condition is rare, affecting about 0.3 percent of Americans, or 3 in 1,000 people.

After his diagnosis, Derrick continued to play the game and scored a total of 854 points in his four-year varsity career. But over the years, Derrick’s neurological condition worsened, and the development of diabetes became an additional burden. In December 2023, Derrick passed away due to medical complications related to his illness.

During his journey, Martie Bessler navigated a daunting mental health system and did what a mother does: tenaciously watching over her child and doing everything in her power to protect him. To that end, she became a key voice in CIT training, educating law enforcement in offices about the very real human component of mental illness.

When Bessler recounts her experiences — Derrick’s story, which is both heartbreaking and wise — in Northern Kentucky’s CIT training programs, she talks about her son’s size, sometimes showing off one of his size 22 shoes that usually gets everyone’s attention pulls. She explains how Derrick lost his father to leukemia at the age of five and how he loved basketball and developed a real talent for the game. She presents them with the story of a young, once vibrant child full of potential who had no say in the illness that halted life as he knew it.

“My son did nothing to get this except roll the dice that labeled him mental illness,” Bessler said. That’s a crucial message throughout CIT’s training, and one that she successfully communicated long ago to the men and women who served in the Covington Police Department.

“Covington was my son’s home for 15 years,” Bessler said. “The Covington Police Department is very active in the area of ​​corporate crime and my goal is to make it clear to our officers that my child did not ask for this, that he had hope, that he had a future and that he had a brother in law enforcement . This is an amazing program. Kudos to Covington.”

Derrick’s first home as a young adult in Covington was a shelter for people with mental illness. Bessler described it as a place where staff helped residents take their medications consistently and gave them a sense of community. For a mother it was a great comfort. But when the location became unfunded and closed, Bessler found a small house for Derrick in Covington. During Derrick’s time there, Bessler and Derrick developed a relationship with Covington officials that had a lasting impact on everyone.

“Seeing how our officers have shown compassion toward Derrick and Martie over the many years shows that for us, compassion is not just a word, but something we believe in and strive to achieve,” Winship said. “Following Martie and Derrick on their journey has shown us how difficult living with mental illness can be, how many people are affected by it, and how important it is to support and lift up those in need.”

NAMI Walk participants honored Derrick, whose brother Nick, a local police officer, served as community leader for the event.

“The best possible result”

Ryan Wilfong, a career hostage negotiator, helped the Louisville Police Department’s CIT program help de-escalate crisis situations nationwide after a Louisville Police Department officer was shot in a car accident. Officers caught the driver hitting himself with a tire iron, and when an officer tried to retrieve the iron, the man grabbed a gun from one of the officer’s holsters and shot the officer. Denise Spratt, then Kentucky’s CIT coordinator and now executive director, approached the department about rolling out her program statewide. They created the program based on the Louisville Model and the Memphis Model and rolled it out nationally in 2007. They now offer 12 courses per year and have trained almost 5,000 officers.

“The bottom line is to give officers the communication skills – to give them some information about mental health, not to make a diagnosis, but to understand what the behavior might be – and then use them in certain situations to get the best possible outcome “To lead,” said Wilfong the training.

Covington plays a key role in this training

“We have a great relationship with Covington PD,” Wilfong said. “Matt has been an instructor with us for many years and Greg Jones, who retired as a Covington police captain, still teaches at the state level.”

Over the years, Winship said he has had officers with 25 years of service come up to him at the end of his CIT presentation and ask him, “Where did this training take place 20 years ago?”

“There is nothing about CIT that is earth-shattering or new, it is about sharpening your ax as a public servant and re-centering your goals,” Winship said.

Jim Dahmann, PhD, a clinical psychologist at North Key Community Care who wrote the grant to bring CIT to Northern Kentucky, was present at Winship’s class. Dahman said CIT training provides information that officers do not receive at the police academy.

“People used to come here and say they didn’t want to take this training,” Dahman said. “Since then, this class has been fully booked for us.”

During his talk, Winship likes to ask officers to think about a circumstance they experienced in their careers that really stuck with them – an incident they still remember 20 years later.

“I’ve found that they choose something where it’s not necessarily someone in crisis, but where someone has been a victim, often a child victim, because they identify the victim as a real victim, someone against “There’s nothing you can do about their circumstances,” Winship said. “I associate this with people with mental illnesses because they cannot determine their own fate. I ask them to view the person they are dealing with and helping as someone who did not choose their fate.”

With one in four people diagnosed with a mental illness, Winship said approaching any mental health crisis or CIT intervention with that idea in mind will lead them as officers and officers to step in, help that person and help try to get them the help they need.

“I am so proud of our officers,” Winship said. “They are tested and experienced. We respond to over 60,000 service calls annually. I don’t think there is any agency in the region that can challenge our officers and their professionalism. Integrity, professionalism, compassion, respect and justice are our department’s core values, and they don’t forget those words – they live them.”

City of Covington