OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – “We feel safe when he’s here,” Stephanie Nero talking about her friend and coworker Officer Shane Mustard.   Stephanie and Shane work for Red Rock Behavioral Health Services in Oklahoma City.  Shane is the security guard.  ” He helps deescalate a lot of the crisis that we have here,” Stephanie says. “And he’s just a friendly person and we all love him.”

Handling emergency situations with folks dealing with mental health challenges can be volatile. But most of the time Shane can solve the situation with his words and not force. “It’s just training and time with doing this,” Shane says.  “I’ve got almost 20 years of being in law enforcement and I went through some specialized training to work with mental health patients.”

Shane is more than security. He’s a friend. And when his schedule had him rotate out of Red Rock the employees actually started a petition to get him back. “We had so many signatures,” says coworker Lisa Neal, ” I think it took like 3 pages to get him back. Because so many people requested, he be back they brought him back on board with Red Rock.”

Just one of the many reasons Shane was nominated for First Fidelity Bank’s Pay It Forward Award.  First Fidelity’s Charles Griffin gave us the 400 dollars in cash and when Stephanie surprised him in the cafeteria of the facility with the 400, and kind words of what Shane meant to her and everyone at Red Rock,  Shane immediately became emotional. ” We lost our house so we’re in the process of moving,” Shane said.  “This will help take care of what needs to be taken care of.”

He went on to say about his fellow employees at Red Rock, “I love ’em.  I’ve been here for almost 4 years working with a lot of these same people to me their family.  We all reach out to do what we can with the mental health community.”

 Then it was hugs all around for a man who pays it forward by providing peace of mind with his badge and his understanding.