Synopsis Of A Weather Watcher Shines Bright Red Above...

KTTC’s weather watcher shines bright red above Minneapolis/ Saint Paul’s skyline. Warmer weather is on its way. The mid-afternoon news report confirms it. It is hot. Scorching hot. Temperatures were already in the 90s and expected to climb. Tonight those lucky enough to afford air-conditioning will ramp it up and seek peace in cooler conditions. Bud, a 70 year-old veteran of the Marine Corps, isn’t so lucky. He does not have air-conditioning. Instead, two strategically placed ceiling fans cool his 2nd story walk up. One creeks back and forth in the dining room while the other whirs in his bedroom. They do little to stymie the heat, however, along with an open window, the miniscule breeze circulating through the apartment is better than†¦show more content†¦Today and every day since a drunken driver t-boned her vehicle in the middle of an intersection Molly has issues getting to work. If she calls in sick today, she loses her job. It would be her 3rd lost job in 9 months. Losing yet another job, means that she and her husband would not be able to pay their rent. Not being able to afford rent means tonight she and her husband will have another fight. Though their experiences are vastly different, Bud and Molly are two very text book examples of people living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They are also two representative examples of people who have the potential to come into contact with a police officer or another emergency response team during a crisis. An officer or 1st responder may respond to a simple welfare check for an elderly veteran, or the officer maybe called to intervene in a more complex case of situational domestic violence. While clinicians and therapists have made strides in mental health crises, little has been done to get evidence base practices and techniques (EBP/ EBT) into the hands of those who need it the most—those on the front line, the police and emergency responders. Michael Nerheim, a State’s Attorney from Lake County, Illinois, told the Chicago Tribune, â€Å"If officer’s aren’t properly trained they could mistake something that’s really a mental illness for aggression or non-compliance† (Olsen, 2016). With The National Alliance on Mental Illness reporting that every year 2