Albuquerque’s mayor and other city staff members took eight hours Saturday to learn how to identify and help deal with people going through mental health crises, part of an effort to dissolve the stigma around mental illness, and ease the pressure on city public safety and law enforcement professionals.
It was two Central New Mexico Community College instructors’ seventh class on “mental health first aid,” but the first to be offered to anyone other than the school’s faculty, students and staff. The all-day course gave the city employees strategies for helping someone in the midst of a crisis and a primer on what mental health resources are available to them.
