Our Place
Vaccination Ignorance.
There’s a house, located on Main Street in downtown Lake Geneva that’s situated just across the street from the library. How convenient and clever to decorate the house with political messages. The message of this house is anti-vaccination. The house is plastered with this kind of messaging. “The Covid virus is bullshit,” is the actual wording of some of the posters, the message all bad about science, medicine, and the government without mentioning any of the three. This house’s effort to ‘educate’ the public is what happens when politics becomes emotionally heated over the personality of one cult figure. That losing president has caused more pain to his supporters than anyone could have predicted. Many, like the owners of the property promoting their awful and culturally damaging message, have taken to holing up in dens, caves, and closed-door houses like the one discussed here. The selfishness of anti-vaxxers cannot be overlooked. Everyone else gets vaccinated to save them. The vapid drooling ridiculousness of being an anti-vaxxer should not be overlooked either. Polio is gone, Smallpox is gone. Measles, gone. The virus will be gone because of the vaccinations and the people who are wisely getting them. The anti-vaxxers are killing people, but they are the kind of humans who do not give one single damn…and the rest of the population should consider their actions and presentation in dealing with them now, and on into the future.
Walworth County launched a new crisis liaison program.
When individuals suffering from a mental health crisis encounter and have interactions with the police or judicial system it can be very upsetting and have lasting effects. Addressing mental health crises and calls requires long-term solutions and specialized skills that officers aren’t necessarily able to provide. Officers responding to these mental health and substance abuse-related calls have few good options to help the victim. It takes a lot of training and time to learn how to handle these delicate situations.
A new Walworth County pilot program aims to change this and provide professional expertise known as the Embedded Crisis Liaison Program. The program places individuals from the Walworth County Department of Health and Human Services on-site at specific law enforcement agencies during peak call times 24/7. This allows for real-time community access to mental health professionals and support services. The police secure the scene and decide when it’s appropriate to hand things over to the liaisons. Hopefully, this ‘immediate on scene’ response will produce a better outcome for residents needing such assistance, while also providing police officers with more caring support.
Based on population and crisis response case data, the cities of Delavan and Whitewater have been selected as the first law enforcement agencies to utilize the liaisons. In addition to liaison services, behavioral health specialists are researching ways to expand mental health support for the sheriff’s office. Support may include; consultation for serious situations that require the assistance of the SWAT team, de-escalating crises, follow-ups in group homes, and enhanced mental health services in the jail. The sheriff’s department is located close to the Department of Health and Human Services, so the liaisons are available to respond on the scene when requested.
