SRSO Completes Excited Delirium Training

On Thursday July 13, 2006 the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office completed all of its training for their detention deputies on the topic of "Excited Delirium." Sheriff Wendell Hall required all of his jail personnel to complete the training, which included such subjects as how to recognize the symptoms, deescalation of the situation, and how best to deal with the crisis. Sheriff Hall was interviewed by the media and stated, "We will use every method known to us, to include several officers on a man, before we will (stun) them." Future training is being scheduled on "Dealing with the Mentally Ill" that will be presented to both road deputies and detention personnel.

The condition is related to a term called "in-custody" death syndrome, which has been used to define unexplained deaths (with no apparent cause) when a subject was taken into custody. Although ED is a term that is not officially recognized as a medical or even a psychiatric condition the media has used the term on numerous occasions to explain certain conditions that brought about the deaths of subjects in the custody of the authorities. Most experts agree that virtually every known case has involved a combination of either substance abuse, mental illness, bizarre behavior, and/or physical exertion. With this in mind Sheriff Hall presented his staff with the necessary training to recognize and hopefully deal with these conditions should they become apparent. The instructor for "excited delirium" was Ms. Kathy Macchi, RN, who is the Health Care Administrator of the Santa Rosa County Jail.