Pullman City Council appointed a new public works director and discussed rising suicide attempt rates during their meeting Tuesday night. Pullman Mayor Glenn Johnson said Shawn Kohtz will replace Kevin Gardes as the new public works director in June following a unanimous vote. Kohtz has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of.
Washington State University is working to provide an on-campus site to administer COVID-19 vaccines by the time most of its students become eligible to receive the shots.
WSU spokesman David Wasson said the university has applied to the state to be a vaccine provider. He said the University Recreation facility could be a possible location to administer vaccines.
The vaccine site will be limited to students, Wasson said. The university wants to provide a high-volume vaccination site for when an influx of students begin getting shots.
He said there is not a determined date for when the site will open.
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Mike Berney, Palouse River Counseling executive director, spoke to the Pullman Police Advisory Committee on March 8 about the mental health impacts of COVID-19.
Washington is in the bottom third in the country of available psychiatric beds per 100,000 people, Berney said. PRC has been paying attention to this because having available care is a necessity.
The behavioral health system, in general, has been significantly underfunded for quite a while, which also has a significant impact on police officers, he said.
There are various challenges that come with being in a rural community, Berney said. One challenge is not having the ability to attract professionals and keep them for a long period of time.
The Pullman Police Advisory Committee will tackle discussions on mental health and will provide updates concerning the Pullman Police Department’s Citizen Police Academy during its virtual monthly meeting at 5:30 p.m. March 8.
Mike Berney, executive director of Palouse River Counseling, will be the mental health guest speaker. He said he will provide an overview of how mental health crises are addressed in the community. This includes how PRC staff work with officers and other first responders during debriefing sessions.
“[Mental health] is really a very wide continuum of potential issues,” he said.
Berney said he will also discuss the state’s Involuntary Treatment Act and its connection to mental health crises.