We’re grateful to area police officers and other emergency first responders who participated in a recent training on responding to those having a mental health crisis.

As News staff writer Mike Gonzalez reported recently, Partners in Prevention offered the eight-hour training meant to help police and others de-escalate situations so everyone — police and those having mental health challenges — gets to leave the situation safely.

That’s important work.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness says people with serious mental illness are about 10 times as likely as those without a serious mental illness to experience use of force by police. Between 2015 and 2020, a quarter of all fatal shootings by police involved someone with a mental illness.

That’s because “someone experiencing a mental health crisis can appear hostile or resistant, and their symptoms can interfere with their ability to respond to commands,” the alliance says on its website.

We know law enforcement and other first responders want to keep everyone safe. No officer wants to use his or her firearm.

The Partners in Prevention training offered first responders tips on techniques to make sure that happens by calming down situations, giving the person experiencing a mental health crises a chance to calm himself or herself down.

We’re grateful to Partners in Prevention for offering the training and to area first responders for participating and learning how to protect everyone with whom they come in contact.