Madison County sheriff discusses $150,000 grant for training

MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — The Madison County Sheriff’s Office received a $150,000 grant for Crisis Intervention Training.

The training is a one week class where officers learn how to handle situations involving people with mental health issues.

Madison County Sheriff John Mehr says the class is open to anyone in emergency services, and stretches to 10 counties in West Tennessee.

With the grant, the fee for officers and trainers are covered.

Mehr says the course is intense to give officers a true understanding on how to handle mental health.

“In the mock training they will experience all of these different types of mental illness and have to react to how to handle it. They get to put it to use and they will come back and say, ‘That helped us. I see things differently,'” Mehr said.

Mehr says they plan to have a class starting next week, and a graduation on Friday, March 25.

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