CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Law enforcement officials in Charlotte are hitting the gym to promote mental health awareness at the Sanity not Vanity event. 

  • CMPD has a team of nearly 500 officers who respond people facing a mental health crisis
  • They also have 6 mental health clinicians
  • Event was held to promote mental health awareness

The event was started by Fonda Bryant, after she says she hit a low point in her life in 1995. 

"I was dealing with depression, had no idea I had it, and I almost took my own life," Bryant says. "I was taken to a mental health facility handcuffed by a CMPD officer."

After recovering, she started the event and asked law enforcement officials to join her to help raise awareness. 

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department has a Crisis Intervention Team with nearly 500 officers who are trained on how to respond when a person facing a mental health crisis calls into 911. 

"We want to get out there and talk to that person that's having suicidal [thoughts], calm them down, try to figure out what's going on in their lives and try to tell them that there's hope," says Capt. Jim Wilson with CMPD. 

CMPD also received funding to add six full-time mental health clinicians to respond to mental health calls with officers. 

"They have a far better understanding of mental health, behavioral health, substance use, they can make diagnosis, they can talk to clinicians," Capt. Wilson says.  

"We have officers that are not going to take us to jail, are not going to lock us up or put us in a mental hospital, but they can actually come and just listen to us," Bryant says.

The clinicians are expected to start patrols sometime this fall. 

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