|
Expert to address community leaders on
crisis de-escalation |
|
January 21, 2012 |
By Ann Wimberley
 |
|
Memphis
police major Sam Cochran |
Memphis, Tennessee, Police Major Sam Cochran,
the nation’s acknowledged leader in
implementation of Crisis Intervention Training
(CIT) for law enforcement, will address
community leaders at a February 8, 2012, banquet
at the Ponderay Event
Center behind Sandpoint Furniture.
The banquet, supported by the Ambrosiani-Pastore
Foundation through a grant to NAMI Far North, is
an important element of the implementation of
CIT throughout Idaho.
NAMI Far North, the Bonner and Boundary Counties
affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental
Illness, was organized for the purpose of
improving the lives of individuals living with
mental illness through education, support and
advocacy.
CIT is an evidence-based pre-booking jail
diversion program designed to improve the
outcomes of police interactions with people with
mental illness, reducing incidents of violence
and diverting individuals from punitive
incarceration to appropriate community-based
medical treatment. CIT began in Memphis
Tennessee in 1988 after police shot and killed
an unarmed man with mental illness.
The Memphis-model CIT program, which has now
been implemented in more than 35 states, is
successful because it is a true community
partnership of law enforcement, mental health
providers, and family and consumer advocates. It
includes 40 hours of training for law
enforcement officers on mental illness and
techniques of verbal de-escalation during a
mental health crisis.
Law enforcement, by default, is the first
responder to mental illness crises. In the year
following the establishment of CIT in Memphis,
there was an 80% decrease in law enforcement
injuries on mental disturbance calls.
Individuals with mental illness diverted in CIT
programs have been found to receive more
treatment for their illnesses than those not
diverted. CIT can also save communities money,
since the alternative of incarceration and
involuntary hospitalization are the most
expensive ways to handle mental illness crises.
Major Cochran will share his experiences in
implementing CIT in Memphis and elsewhere in the
US and internationally. He will emphasize the
importance of the community collaboration
aspects of CIT, with teamwork among law
enforcement, local mental health care providers
and the family members of people living with
mental illness providing the network of care and
safety that may not only save money but improve
officer safety and possibly prevent the kind of
tragedy that gave rise to the original CIT
program.
Idaho began to implement Memphis-model CIT with
its first CIT Academy in February 2009, followed
by CIT academies in five of the seven Department
of Health and Welfare regions of Idaho.
NAMI Idaho, the state organization of the
National Alliance on Mental Illness, was a
leader in the collaborative efforts that
established the Idaho CIT Work Group, including
law enforcement officers, DHW Behavioral Health
staff, NAMI representatives from
CIT-implementing Regions, and a representative
from Idaho Peace Officers Standards and Training
(POST). The Work Group has standardized the
Idaho POST-certified 40 hour Memphis-model
curriculum regionally across the state. In
consistent feedback, the Crisis De-Escalation
Training (CDT) segment of the standardized
training has been deemed among the most valuable
parts of the overall training.
DHW Region I CIT provides training for law
enforcement officers and other first responders
in the state’s northern five counties. The Bonner
County Sheriff’s Office serves as the host law
enforcement agency. Since the first CIT Academy
was held in February 2009, 55 law enforcement
officers and five EMTs in Region 1 have been
trained in CIT. Region I CIT Academy #4 is
scheduled for March 5-9, 2012.
Major Cochran and four of his associates will be
in Sandpoint February 8 and 9, conducting a
Train the Trainer for law enforcement and mental
health volunteers who teach in CIT programs
across Idaho.
This training and one held in Boise in October
are funded by a NAMI Idaho Byrne/JAG grant, a
federal law enforcement grant administered by
the Idaho State Police. The cornerstone of CIT
programs is teaching officers how to verbally
de-escalate a crisis rather than resorting to
force. The goal is to provide law enforcement
and mental health trainers with an in-depth
understanding of scenario-based de-escalation
training. |
|
|
|
|
