SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (KGUN) — How often do you feel stress, depression, or the general feeling the world’s closing in on you? If you feel any of that you’re hardly alone.
The Cochise College is now offering innovative training in behavioral health.
Behavioral health affects just about everything in your life. Cochise College has a program that uses technology, and even acting to help prepare people for that field.
On a hospital bed, a mannequin says, “The weather is really bad. I just lost a loved one in my family.”
A nurse asks, “Are you feeling like harming yourself or others?”
“No, I just want to find a dark corner and just cry," it replies.
Cochise College offers a wide range of medical training with the awareness that there’s a behavioral health component to any medical case—and the people doing basic care at the bedside have the most contact and the best opportunity to assess how someone’s feeling not just physically, but psychologically.
Program graduates won’t do direct counseling as much as share what they hear with other providers so they can adjust treatment.
The same mannequins that simulate a patient’s vital signs can simulate behavioral health issues with the help of instructors in a control room nearby. For live-action training, a retired nurse volunteers to play the role of someone having serious behavior issues.
Nursing and Allied Health Dean Bethany Hill says once she mistook the volunteer for someone who needed behavioral help.
“She's very convincing," Hill shared. "She will sometimes have bottles of alcohol hidden. She'll come in with toy mice coming out of her hair.”
There’s such a need for behavioral skills that Cochise College earned a grant from the Legacy Foundation of Southern Arizona. This grant makes the 16-week course tuition free for the next three years.
Bethany Hill says graduates can expect to earn $18 or $19 an hour. And the program is not just for health professionals.
First responders like police and firefighters can learn behavioral health techniques to apply to troubled people they encounter.
"It also has a whole lot of de-escalation techniques and crisis situation management so that our first responders are able to navigate a behavioral health emergency safely, safely for them and safely for the person having the crisis."
And Hill says with the stress from the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for behavioral health training just keeps growing.
Please check out the Cochise College’s Behavioral Health Training Program for more information.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
