Bernardston firefighter commended for response to mental health crisis
Published: 08-20-2024 11:09 AM |
BERNARDSTON — Although off-duty firefighter Jeffrey Guy was not asked to respond to a situation involving a woman experiencing a mental health crisis on July 25, he happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Guy happened to be getting off Interstate 91 when he saw Police Sgt. John Richardson trying to restrain a subject who had been attempting to throw herself into traffic.
“I was literally just getting off the highway, and I turned over and looked where I saw the sergeant’s cruiser parked off on the side on the southbound on-ramp,” Guy recounted. “I saw that he was wrestling with the subject.”
Guy parked his personal vehicle nearby and approached Richardson to offer his assistance. In all, three police officers, Guy and three paramedics were needed to deescalate the situation without further force, and the woman was taken by paramedics to receive treatment at a medical facility.
To recognize Guy for his quick thinking and willingness to lend a hand, Richardson wrote a letter to Fire Chief Peter Shedd and the Selectboard commending Guy. The letter was read during a Selectboard meeting earlier this month.
After Selectboard Chair Ken Bordewieck finished reading the letter, he thanked Guy for his response on behalf of the town. Reflecting on the commendation, Guy said he is just happy to have been in the right place at the right time.
“Without hesitation I’m gonna stop and help do anything I can,” Guy said. “I was just happy that it was just the right time for me to actually give him a hand.”
In an interview, Richardson said this sort of mental health situation requires decisions to be made quickly. In this case, Richardson said he had to restrain the woman to make sure she didn’t harm herself or anyone else.
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“Sometimes you have to make a decision to prevent more harm from coming,” he said. In some cases, the responding officer can deescalate the situation with alternative methods, but in this case, the decision was made to mitigate using physical restraint. “When someone gets to this point, when they’re actively doing something that’s going to harm themselves, you have to act decisively to stop that.”
Richardson explained that officers in Bernardston have completed a 40-hour Crisis Intervention Training to learn about the different types of mental health issues and how to differentiate between a mental health crisis or something different. The department partners with Clinical & Support Options (CSO), a behavioral and mental health agency, to offer clinical support to those in crisis.
For Guy, the outcome of the situation was favorable for everyone involved, with no one getting hurt and the woman being taken by paramedics to receive treatment.
“Fortunately it worked out where she didn’t succeed in what she was planning on doing and she didn’t get physically hurt,” Guy said. “Everything went well in a bad situation.”
Both Richardson and Guy noted the public should know that these sorts of calls happen, even in the region’s smallest communities.
“It’s good for the public to realize that we deal with this regularly,” Richardson said. “The other side of it is to help the public realize that, in this particular case, I thought it was commendable that firefighter Guy took it upon himself upon himself to take the initiative. He saw me in a situation, he evaluated the facts and he acted exactly in a way that I would have taught firefighters how to assist police officers.”
Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.