Forsyth County officials gave a look into the county Sheriff's Office's Crisis Intervention Response Team in a video update this week.
In the Your Forsyth update, the team and the sheriff talk about the benefits of their partnership with Avita Community Partners.
"The latest statistic that I've been able to pull shows that the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office is responding to just over seven calls a day that have mental health involvement," said Sergeant Terry Hawkins. Hawkins is the CIRT team lead.
Also on the team, Licensed Clinical Social Worker Julie Zemke and Certified Peer Specialist Josh Bell. Both work for Avita and work exclusively with the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office.
Hawkins and Zemke will co-respond to metal health-related calls for service, along with deputies, and work to de-escalate the situation. Afterwards, they advise on how they can assist the subject of the call further. Bell meets with people who are not in crisis but may be at risk, and can advise them on maintaining access to wellness resources.
Sheriff Ron Freeman said in the video update that the CIRT does not stop someone from being held accountable for criminal offenses.
"But sometimes, some of those minor crimes are based on severe and persistent mental health issues," he said. "That is not somebody who needs to be in the jail. That's somebody who needs help and treatment. So it's important, we need to find a way to decriminalize mental health and criminalize criminal behavior but not mental health issues."
Freeman said case studies in the county showed their CIRT has saved lives.
"Not just done good work, we have literally saved human lives," he said. "And if we're doing that, tell me something more important we should be doing."
Hawkins said the department noticed an increase in mental health calls starting several years ago, and that they noticed a need to change how they handled those calls, so the CIRT was formed in December 2020.
