CIT Plus

1
CIT Plus

• Crisis Intervention Teams
• The Connecticut Model

2
The Synergy
Champion The New London PD Crisis Intervention
Team
Impetus CT Alliance to Benefit Law
Enforcement CABLE
3
Coalition Building
4
Curriculum

• Introduction to CIT model
• Mental Illness and Co-occurring Disorders
• Mental Illness and the Law
• Mental Illness in Children and Adolescents
• Effective Police Encounters with Children and
  Adults on the Autism Spectrum
• Suicide by Cop What we know Personal
  Perspectives Post-shooting Trauma and Care
• Suicide Assessment and Intervention
• In-Custody Death and Excited Delirium
• Medication the Double-Edged Sword
• De-escalation Techniques and Less Lethal Options
• A Family Perspective on Mental Illness
• In Our Own Voice Persons with Mental Illness
  Share Their Stories
• Pre and Post Deployment Veterans Family Issues
• Hearing Voices that are Distressing An
  Experiential Exercise
• Completing the Police Emergency Evaluation Review
  Form
• Role Plays

5
Memphis Model of CIT

• 40 hour curriculum
• Led by trained, experienced law enforcement
  professionals (credibility is key to CIT success)
• Co-training with mental health professionals,
  families and persons living with mental illness
• Interdisciplinary training geared toward police
  AND their mental health partners
• Working partnerships established between police
  and community based crisis services and supports

More than just training!
6
The Brain Child

• New London PD CIT
• Southeastern CT Mental Health Authority
• Dedicated CIT Clinician

7
Role of the CIT Clinician

• Assist CIT officer on CIT calls
• Assist CIT officer in writing Emergency
  Evaluation Request forms
• Stay with consumer in ED to finish intakes and
  let CIT officer return to road
• Follow up on consumers not taken to ED and
  those who are
• Cell block assessments
• Build solid working relationship with police
  partners and more.

8
Benefits

• A continuum of care that goes beyond the
  initial encounter and disposition
• Clinician continues the follow-up to ensure
  that client is linked to services
• Facilitates and strengthens consumer connections
  to community based caregivers
• Reduces the number of repeat calls
• Saves the officer time off the road

9
Funding

• Establishing connections with NAMI-CT and others
• Presentation to the State of CTs Department of
  Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS)
• Research for Grant opportunities
• DMHAS was awarded a Byrne Grant for a pilot
• CABLE chosen to implement both the pilot and the
  statewide initiative

10
The Pilot

• To implement CIT in three large urban police
  departments within the state.
• To hire and train CIT clinicians dedicated to
  working with those police departments.
• To hire a University to
• assess the effectiveness of the model as
  a pre-arrest, jail diversion tool
• assess the effectiveness of CIT in linking
  consumers to community based services

11
The Carrot!

• Covered all training costs including some
  overtime expenses
• Paid for the CIT Clinician to work with New
  London/Norwich, West Haven, New Haven, Hartford,
  Waterbury police departments.
• Potential reduction in officer injuries (workers
  compensation claims)
• Potential reduction in injuries to consumers
• Potential reduction in liability claims against
  municipalities

12
The work continues

• Expanding the model
• Continued advocacy for support from the state
  legislature and Prison and Jail Overcrowding
  Commission
• Creative uses of statewide and community
  resources to build what works best for each
  community and their police department.

13
Where we are now

• 20 trainings
• 6 annual refresher conferences
• 1000 officers and mental health clinicians
  trained
• 55 law enforcement agencies
• (Incl. State police, U.S. Marshalls, U.S. Dept.
  of Veterans Affairs, Colleges and Universities
• MH Probation and MH Parole Officers)

14
Statewide insignia

• The Pathfinder

Follow me, I know the way
15

• For more information contact
• Inspector Ken Edwards, Jr.
• President, CABLE, Inc.
• [phone]
• ke_at_cableweb.org
• Louise Pyers, MS
• Executive Director, CABLE, Inc.
• [phone]
• Lcp_at_cableweb.org
• and
• Criminal Justice Project Director
• 1-800-215-3021 NAMI-CT
• criminaljustice_at_namict.org
• www.cableweb.org