LCSO Chief Deputy Mitch Brantingham Delivers Message of the Week : May 12, 2023

Chief Deputy Mitch Brantingham of Lyon County Sheriff’s Office wrote:

Message of the Week 05/12/2023
May is Mental Health Awareness month. Green ribbons are present at the Sheriff’s Office and are being worn by Sheriff’s Office personnel to raise awareness for mental health.

The Sheriff’s Office currently participates in three programs to provide training to our staff and resources to personnel in both our detention and patrol divisions. M.O.S.T., F.A.S.T.T. and C.I.T. are all active within Lyon County on a daily basis. All of these programs are regionally and/or nationally recognized as the standard for care of subjects suffering from mental illness or involved in a mental crisis situation.

M.O.S.T., or the Mobile Outreach Safety Team, consists of a sworn Sheriff’s Office Deputy and a licensed clinical social worker. They respond to calls for service where a mental health component is involved and take referrals from deputies who have identified people in crisis throughout the county. In the first quarter of 2023, 88% the M.O.S.T. consumers were referred by law enforcement, with the majority being related to suicidal threats or ideations and 22.5% being referred for psychotic behavior. M.O.S.T. specializes in de-escalating situations and obtaining appropriate resources for people in Mental Health Crisis.

F.A.S.T.T, or Forensic Assessment Services Triage Teams work in the Lyon County Detention facility to provide mental health resources to persons in custody. They work to assess and lower the risk of recidivism through resources while the person is in custody, as well as assisting them in integration back into society upon their release. F.A.S.T.T. also works to complete substance abuse screening as part of this process. During the month of April, regional F.A.S.T.T. teams enrolled 59 clients, with 28% of those being in Lyon County.

C.I.T., or the Crisis Intervention Team, is a group of Deputies within the Sheriff’s Office, who received additional training in dealing with people in mental health crisis and de-escalation of situations involving such people. This is an advanced training class that puts a higher level of training into our communities and on calls for service where a higher level of care is required. Currently, the Lyon County Sheriff’s office has 1 Lieutenant, 1 Sergeant and 8 Deputies trained for C.I.T.

We know the significant impact mental health has on our communities and work hand in hand with Lyon County Human Services and Western Nevada NAMI every day to ensure we are providing the most up to date and relevant resources we can during times of crisis.

Sheriff Pope has been on a much needed vacation this week, but will be back with his regularly scheduled message next week.

Respectfully,
Mitch Brantingham
Chief Deputy