As Crime Increases, Mental Health Concerns Rise

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — From the case of the Pride Parade stabbing to a man arrested for cutting wires at several businesses and facilities, they were both known as individuals by the public for causing a disturbance or obstruction to property.

“I think when people are in survival mode …they are often driven to make decisions and choices they probably wouldn’t make if they were healthier or had a better support system,” said Alexandra Kohlhase, Clinical Psychologist.

Alexandra Kohlhase is a Clinical Psychologist at Essentia Health and believes that while people are understandably upset with others who caused harm, that it’s also best to be the person to offer the help when they can.

“People who take the time to say you’re a person you clearly don’t want to be living this way. You clearly don’t want to be making these decisions. There’s something bigger at work here and you need help,” said Kohlhase.

Cass County Sheriff’s Office Jail Administrator Andrew Frobig notes that while there have been cases of people dealing with mental illness it itself is not reason to arrest someone.

“Mental illness itself in and of itself is not illegal but the conduct of the people commit or the actions that they take. That they may or do mental illness or maybe they do have drugs that they use on the side or something like that. It’s certainly something that we can address right,” said Andrew Frobig, Jail Administrator.

Currently the Cass County Sheriff’s office has 4 people hospitalized for their concerns over their safety. But while they are able to address these concerns when they bring them into booking they cannot do so without following procedures.

“The hardest part is that we can’t predict necessarily something that’s going to happen six hours later or a day later and its really easy to look at something with a hindsight of 2020 to say well if you just saw him six hours ago if you would’ve done something then this other thing wouldn’t have happened, right,” said Frobig.

The jail has been working with more than 20 organizations to help individuals who want help to get the help that they need.