Crisis training to prepare Pittsburgh retail, restaurant workers to deal with overdose, mental health issues

Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to create a training program catered to restaurant and retail workers who want to learn how to handle people experiencing crises.

Introduced by Councilwoman Deb Gross, D-Highland Park, the measure will create a training program through the city’s Office of Community Health and Safety.

The program will include training in de-escalation, overdose response, Narcan administration and homeless response.

Gross has said she’d like to see the city offer the program to retail and restaurant workers for free, but specifics are still being finalized.

“This is still to be developed,” Gross said of the initiative, which, she said, will have “no budgetary impact.”

Shane Compton, who owns Creative Coffee in Downtown Pittsburgh, said he was supportive of the concept of a training program to help people who work in businesses like his understand how best to handle the difficult situations they may face on the job.

Compton said his coffee shop is a public area where people come to drink coffee, socialize with friends, warm up on a cold day or wait for a bus.

His employees, most of whom are in college or recent graduates, aren’t always sure what to do when someone in the midst of crisis comes into the shop.

“They have limited experience and knowledge on the types of situations they’re encountering on the day-to-day,” Compton said. “They are confused and stressed. And they feel they have a lack of resources to help them.”

The crisis training program, he said, “puts power in our hands to de-escalate situations, to mitigate conflict, to help those in need to get the resources they do need.”

Laura Drogowski, who heads the Office of Community Health and Safety, said she would like to see the city partner with nonprofits and other government organizations who already provide similar trainings. The goal is to coordinate comprehensive trainings that utilize the resources already available, she said.

Council members unanimously approved the measure Tuesday. Councilman Bruce Kraus, D-South Side, was not present for the vote.