AUSTIN (KXAN) – Austin police’s new officers are learning how to face a growing problem on the city’s streets – mental illness. It’s estimated there are 200,000 Austinites who suffer from some form of a mental disorder. 

Cadets on Austin’s police force spent three months researching mental health and its daily impact on their jobs.

“Some people have diabetes, some people have cancer, some people have a mental disorder,” said Clayton Loban, who suffered from depression for years without treatment until his disorder got out of control. 

“I had thoughts like ‘You’re worthless, no one wants to talk to you, and you have no friends,'” he said. “I didn’t realize what I was going through and it caused some problems in my life.”

Those problems are what led him to turn to the Austin Clubhouse , a rehabilitation program where a growing number of people suffering from mental illnesses in Austin come to escape.