Utah lawmakers eliminate a portion of funding to help first responders

Utah lawmakers eliminate a portion of funding to help first responders

(Carter Williams, KSL.com, File)


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SALT LAKE CITY — West Jordan Police Chief Ken Wallentine remembers “prying the fingers of a dad off his baby” so he could take the deceased child to the medical examiner’s office to determine how the baby died.

He then went home to his wife who had been selflessly caring for their own premature infant son.

“There was no way in the world I was going to tell my wife what I did at work that day,” he said, adding that even 40 years later “that event comes to my mind with the same power and the same pain as it did that night that I kept it to myself about how I was feeling.”

The police chief has been advocating for a statewide system — identical to the SafeUT Crisis Chat and Tip Line that is helping thousands of Utah teens — that would help first responders deal with the emotional pain they sometimes experience on the job.

While the majority of the funding, including $10.8 million ongoing and $5.9 million in one-time funding, was kept, lawmakers on Thursday approved a newly prioritized budget that cut $250,000 earmarked for outreach and marketing. The funds were originally approved during the main session, but cuts were necessary in order to deal with financial backlash the state has experienced due to COVID-19.

Social services programs often get hit harder than others, but Wallentine said on Thursday that this one is a matter of life and death for many law enforcement officers who aren’t accustomed to seeking out help on their own.

The SafeUT app for students was created in 2015, funded by the Utah Legislature and headed up by the University of Utah’s Neuropsychiatric Institute, a mental health management center. It is a free service, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year to the user and results in documented life-saving interventions.

From January 2019 to May 2020, UNI fielded 35,091 chats and 15,713 tips from teens that led to honest discussions about suicide, bullying, depression, drugs and other self-harm.

Related:

SafeUT clinicians reported 283 active rescues in the first five months of this year, which is close to the 300 rescues in all of 2019.

More than a thousand members of the Utah National Guard have downloaded the latest version, the SafeUTNG app, designated for military service members and their families. That app was launched in December and, as of May 31, it has fielded 113 chats and 2,145 messages pertaining to the confidential mental health status of local military members.

“We do everything we can to make sure we get all available resources to our service members who need that level of support,” said Capt. Juliann Jeppsen, director of behavioral health with the Utah National Guard and a part-time crisis worker with UNI Crisis and Diversion Services at the University of Utah.

She said caseworkers are trained to use terms that can be understood by guardsmen and guardswomen, and also help to eliminate the stigma a person in need of mental health help might face.

Jeppsen said service members have had their careers terminated or derailed because of mental health concerns or crises, or addictions that arise from not getting the necessary help they need. So, they bottle it up.

“They’re trained to be stoic. When they experience a trauma, they put it on the shelf and move on to the next thing,” she said.

And first responders, who Wallentine believes are drawn to such professions because of inherently strong physical, moral and emotional characteristics, often behave similarly.

“We have some of the finest people in the United States serving as first responders ... we ask so much more of them than we ask of most service workers,” he said. “We’re not superhumans. We just want to serve you better, so please give us this tool.”

Wallentine said a person in law enforcement will experience approximately 180 critical events — dealing with death and dying, violence, abuse and misfortune, sometimes pertaining to children, too — throughout the course of their career.

Suicide Prevention Resources
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call the suicide prevention hotline at 1-800-273-TALK.

Crisis Hotlines

  • Utah County Crisis Line: 801-691-5433
  • Salt Lake County/UNI Crisis Line: 801-587-3000
  • Wasatch Mental Health Crisis Line: 801-373-7393
  • National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
  • Trevor Project Hotline for LGBTQ teens: 1-866-488-7386

Online resources

Warning signs of suicide

  • Talking about wanting to die
  • Looking for a way to kill oneself
  • Talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose
  • Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain
  • Talking about being a burden to others
  • Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs
  • Acting anxious, agitated or recklessly
  • Sleeping too little or too much
  • Withdrawing or feeling isolated
  • Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
  • Displaying extreme mood swings

The more of these signs a person shows, the greater the risk. Warning signs are associated with suicide but may not be what causes a suicide.

Information from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

What to do if you see warning signs of suicide

  • Do not leave the person alone
  • Remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt
  • Call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255)
  • Take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional
Information from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Having someplace they can go, and at their own pace, to decompress or unload some of the trauma, he said, is imperative to maintaining stable mental health and their own happy marriages and families, as well as their lives, in some cases. As a champion of mental health issues for first responders, he said he will continue to advocate for the program until it is funded.

The development of a SafeUT app for first responders, Wallentine said, will provide people the ability to speak or chat with a trained crisis professional confidentially, and in real time, when they are experiencing a mental health crisis.

“We have a culture in law enforcement that we are the caretakers, we are the fixers,” he said. “We are not supposed to be the recipients of help.”

As the barriers to getting help are removed, first responders become more mentally resilient and mentally healthy, and Wallentine said, “we’ll make tremendous progress.”

Correction: Lawmakers reinstated funding for development of an app to address the mental health of first responders, but ended up cutting $250,000 intended for outreach efforts. An earlier version stated the funding was cut.

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Wendy Leonard is a deputy news director at KSL.com. Prior to this, she was a reporter for the Deseret News since 2004, covering a variety of topics, including health and medicine, police and courts, government and other issues relating to family.

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