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Sacramento librarians learning to help people with untreated mental health issues

"It's easy to be in a difficult interaction with a person and just assume they're a rude person and they're taking it out on you, but in reality there could be a mental health issue that is beyond their control."

Sacramento librarians are training to learn how to help people with untreated mental health issues.

"We work with such a broad cross-section of people," said Librarian Jennifer Harmonson. "We have a lot of people who come out here during the day that I would presume to be homeless."

Thanks to the funding from The California State Library, Harmonson went to San Jose to learn how to train other librarians, back in Sacramento, how to identify people in need of mental health service.

"It's easy to be in a difficult interaction with a person and just assume they're a rude person and they're taking it out on you, but in reality there could be a mental health issue that is beyond their control."

The librarians were trained to approach someone in distress, taught how to build trust and recognize the difference between needing help or just having a bad day.

Thirty librarians across Sacramento have taken part in the training with more sessions being offered in the next few months.

Harmonson said the first step is to figure out if the person is a danger to themselves or someone else before going to the next step.

The training is to help everyone, not only homeless people.

Prior to this training, Harmonson said they would just have to call police.

"Unfortunately, a lot of times the go to help would be first responders," Harmonson said. "To be able, as a staff person, to recognize some of the signs and have the tools to step in and be the intermediary until the professional help arrives."

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