Meet the Goshen officer who responds to mental health crises

 

GOSHEN, Ind. -- The City of Goshen unveiled its newest resource, a police vehicle specifically designed to respond to mental health and substance misuse crises.

It's a new set of wheels for Jim Ballard, the city's first behavioral health response coordinator.

"I am a full-time crisis intervention team member, full-time officer that responds to crisis," Ballard said.

"He has special training," Mayor Gina Leichty said. "But he is a police officer with additional training that is able to respond to people having some type of mental health or substance abuse kind of crisis."

ABC57 asked him why working in the mental health space mattered to him.

"So, I had a lot of trauma as a child," he said. "I grew up around alcoholism. I lost my mother when I was 10 years old. She passed away. Divorced family. So a lot of trauma."

He's been in law enforcement since 1991 but said he always thought there had to be a better way to address crisis response.

"When they interview you as a police officer, they ask, 'Why do you want to be a police officer?' and everybody, usually they answer, 'I want to help people.,'" Ballard said. "But then you go to the academy... when I went, and it was military. 'You don't lose the fight.' 'You're always in charge.'"

He found that better way through crisis intervention training.

"The trauma that someone has been through in their life, maybe that's why they're acting the way they are," Ballard said. "So, maybe, if I can get to someone who may have an alcohol problem or a substance misuse problem, or a mental health problem, if I can get to them before they get into the criminal justice system, and I can divert them to services instead of incarceration, that's a good day."

Wednesday, the city officially unveiled its crisis response vehicle. It's equipped with things like Narcan, a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose, and Ben's Blue Bags, a toolkit for those with autism to communicate and calm down.

"Everyone enjoys the car, they come up, they're interested in the car," Ballard said. "It's my opportunity to break some of those stigmas associated with mental health. You know, calling people crazy, etc. No. It's people with mental illness, it's no different than having a heart condition, having diabetes, it's an illness."

On a more pragmatic note, it's a bit more discreet, designed to reduce the trauma of a crisis response call.

"Reducing the trauma associated with having a police car or ambulances in front of your house when you're in crisis, and your neighbors you know looking on, 'what's going on there.' this way, we can kind of do it incognito," Ballard said.

Ballard said about 26 percent of Goshen officers are Crisis Intervention Team trained, with hopes to train more in the coming years.

Funding for the new police vehicle came from private corporations Label Logic, Borden, and Goshen Health.