Athens Police Commander David Malawista found himself alone on the top floor of a small Circleville county jail with a mentally instable, angry man accused of murder.
At one point in the conversation, the man became enraged and threw his chair at Malawista.
"He didn't kill," Malawista said, "because there was no place to hide the body."
Malawista, a member of the Athens Police Department's Behavioral Services Unit, has worked for more than 30 years as a criminal psychologist. In addition to law enforcement, his experience includes time at The Ridges when it was still an operating mental hospital.
He currently runs a program for local police, helping them care for mentally ill criminals and fighting a mental health system that he said has been in decline for more than 20 years.
"Having a psychologist on staff is an unusual thing," Malawista said. "Particularly one that has worked in the field."
Malawista said the decline results from increasingly strict guidelines about which criminals are fit for institutionalization instead of jail.
"We're talking about what door is he going to spend his life behind - a prison or a hospital door?" Malawista said.
In Malawista's experience, if a patient does not represent a danger to himself or others he is left untreated due to the declining number of beds in Ohio's seven mental facilities. Without care, however, the conditions grow more severe.
Often, the worst situation for the mentally ill is jail, Malawista said.
"Putting someone with mental illness in a jail is not a good idea," Malawista said. "They don't do well."
Malawista watched coverage of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, in which 33 people were shot and killed. He said lessons can be learned from tragedy.
"In Virginia Tech, everyone said, 'Weird guy,' but no one ever talked to him," Malawista said. "Now it's like, 'Weird guy, okay. Let's go talk to him and find out what's going on.'"
College is around the age when signs of schizophrenia start appearing, Malawista said, and in a university of about 21,000 students, it's anticipated some students will have mental health problems.
That's one reason OU developed the Student Review and Consultation Committee (SRCC). It works to identify students in crisis early on. Professors and staff may submit referral forms for students harboring signs of mental distress suggesting they seek counseling.
If students want help, they're encouraged to seek out medical attention - even if it takes the encouragement of a friend.
"I think I would definitely do it," said Eden Almasude, a senior majoring in biology and philosophy. "With digression and delicacy, but being straightforward also."
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