As May comes to end so does mental health awareness month.
But the talks don’t have to end.
Earlier this month, a St. Paul Police Officer was honored for saving the life of a shooting victim.
But he said that life he saved changed him.
Now, he hopes his story will help others get help. Officer Mat Jones responded to a 911 call in August 2018. Someone shot a man attending a funeral in the chest. As Jones approached to help the shooting victim, he said a group of “primarily African-Americans” began yelling at him.
“I didn't tell anybody this other than my therapist. Specifically, as I ran up to the car someone said, " You Get out of here. You don't help N- words, you kill them." They said that to me. At the time it didn't register, and I continued doing what I was doing,” he said.
On his knees, beside the victim, Jones used a T-shirt to apply pressure until paramedics arrived. He later learned his efforts stopped the victim from going into cardiac arrest.
Then, about a week after responding to that call, Jones said he broke.
“I had really bad nightmares about approaching the young man and the crowd being hostile,” he said. He said in his dream, the crowd pulled him away from helping the victim, and disarmed him.
He also wasn’t sleeping or eating. He began to isolate himself from friends and family.
“It started to get really bad. A lot of risk taking behavior that I now regret,” he said. "I was going down a dark path."
Eventually, he asked for help and was diagnosed with PTSD.
He's not alone. Law enforcement report higher rates of depressions, PTSD and other mental health conditions. That is according to NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Jones is on a mission to change the stigma surrounding mental health.
“We have this idea in policing that nobody understands what we are going through other than other cops, but we also tend to give each other a hard time about being soft about these things and that is a culture that needs to change,” he said. “Why is that when you are struggling mentally with something we don't ask for help? That is part of the stigma. That is a big thing. I am a big tough cop I can handle this. I am not gonna show you I have a weakness and that is what we need to get over.”
Jones said with the help of his family, St. Paul Police department and other resources he made some significant changes. Adding he feels mentally healthy and physically stronger. Meanwhile, SAMHSA’s National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders. SAMHSA’s National Helpline is 1-800-662-HELP (4357)