MOUNT VERNON – Knox County Dispatch has received 224 calls this year alone for mental health and/or suicide-related emergencies; Laura Webster, operations director of Knox County 911, told the Knox County Commissioners during the Sept. 22 meeting.
This rate has been increasing over the years, but there is not always a real problem to be addressed.
“This can be a bit of a revolving door for us,” Captain Jay Sheffer from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office told the Mount Vernon News. “Oftentimes we get calls from the same people, over and over. We go evaluate; sometimes we end up giving them a pink slip and then they call us again three days later.”
Giving a pink slip would send the caller to be evaluated in the hospital for three days to ensure they are not a danger to themselves or others.
The Dispatch received 32 calls for attempted or threatened suicide and 17 for mental health issues during the month of August. Only 10 of those calls actually had reports filed for them.
"The CAD system is our computer-aided dispatch system," Jason Booth, Knox County administrator, told the News. "Every one of the calls that it gets has dispatch sent to that location," .
“The CAD system documents the call, but there isn’t always a report that needs to be filed.” Sheffer said. “Sometimes, it’s just a wellness checkup that ended up with the person being checked on simply being at work and unreachable. Other times, reports do need to be made.”
During April, the month after Ohio shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 28 calls for mental health help. Going into May, it dropped to 26 calls but shot up to 39 in June when everything reopened.
“I think when people get cooped up; during bad weather and, unfortunately, during the holidays; and it causes some people to have more issues than they normally would.” Sheffer said.
Fredericktown has seen a spike in calls in recent years as well as during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Why? That’s the million-dollar question,” Fredericktown police chief Kyle Johnson said. “It’s devastating that so many people are struggling. Is it a lack of funding for mental health? Is it the pandemic?”
In 2019, the year ended with a total of 328 calls for mental-health-related emergencies, with a total of eight deaths due to suicide.
