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by Gina DeMent, Public Information Officer
Five County Mental Health Authority
Ten law enforcement officers from Granville, Franklin and Vance counties completed a certified 40-hour voluntary mental health sensitivity training, or Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training, last week at Vance-Granville Community College in Louisburg.
This program helps officers identify and properly interact with people with mental illness, developmental disabilities, and/or substance abuse problems. It is a program that offers specialized training to law enforcement officers responding to mental health crisis situations and encourages cooperation among law enforcement agencies, mental health professionals and local community agencies.
Officers receive training in understanding mental illness, developmental disabilities, substance abuse, and co-occurring disorders; brain theory, personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and the effects of psychotropic medications. The program emphasizes safety first and teaches crisis intervention and verbal de-escalation techniques that reduce the risk of harm to officers and those experiencing the mental health crisis. If an officer is in the field and encounters someone who may have a mental illness, that officer may call in a CIT-trained officer for support. CIT officers wear special pins for identification by consumers, family members and health services staff.
The goal of the program is to train at least 50 law enforcement officers and to have at least one CIT officer per shift in the five-county area, which includes Franklin, Granville, Halifax, Vance and Warren Counties. There is also planning to offer CIT training to 911 dispatchers and magistrates.
In an effort to better prepare officers to respond to these individuals, a number of communities have developed CIT programs modeled after the first program developed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1988.
The implementation of the program was a collaboration of Five County Mental Health Authority, NAMI, Consumer and Family Advisory Committee (CFAC) providers and Vance-Granville Community College.
CIT training is a specialized law enforcement response to people in serious mental health crisis, to whom law enforcement officers are frequently front-line responders. CIT programs have the following three characteristics:
*Intensive law enforcement training – Law enforcement officers receive up to 40 hours of training about mental illness.
*Strong mental health partnerships – Law enforcement/mental health triage system, whereby police officers responding to people in crisis have viable options, when appropriate, for linking individuals with needed mental health treatment in lieu of arrest and incarceration.
*Significant consumer and family involvement – Consumer and family advocates are integrally involved in the design and implementation of CIT programs.
The community is appreciated for its support of CIT training in our five counties. Many consumer and family advocates have been integrally involved in the design and implementation of CIT programs, as well as law enforcement. Plans are already underway for the next CIT trainings in Vance and Warren County and the recent graduates will be instrumental in making it a reality.
For more information about Crisis Intervention Team training, contact Cynthia Fenner at 252.430.3048 or cfenner@fivecountymha.org. To find out more about NAMI, visit www.naminc.org.
Granville Co. Sheriff’s Office
Dep. Russell Corley
Dep. Douglas McFee
Franklin Co. Sheriff’s Office
Dep. Alvin Roberts Franklin Co. SO
Dep. Troy Wheless
Dep Matthew Tharrington
Dep. Bobby Murphy
Dep. Ruby Galvin
Dep. Kevin White
Lt. Jay Rose, Butner Public Safety
Officer Jessica B. West, Henderson Police Dept.