Aiming at prevention

Some members of local law enforcement recently underwent training to help them better understand and respond to people with mental illnesses and other disabilities.

On Friday, 17 local law enforcement officers including officers from the Jacksonville, Swansboro and Richlands police departments as well as military police from Camp Lejeune and police from Albert J. Ellis Airport gathered for the final day of their Crisis Intervention Team training which they participated in all week.

CIT programs are police-based jail diversion programs that aim to prevent the arrest and incarceration of people with mental illness, developmental disabilities or substance abuse problems for minor crimes and divert them to treatment, when possible.

“The more the officers have these skills the less the jails are going to be crowded,” said Traver Stewart, lead CIT trainer and human services clinical counselor at Onslow Carteret Behavioral Health Services.

Stewart said the program was developed about four years ago in another state when an individual with mental health issues was killed by a law enforcement officer. The areas that CIT programs are in use are already seeing benefits, he said.

“Statistics show … that there is a decrease in mental health consumers being locked up and also an increase in savings,” Stewart said.

Susan Taggert, interim director at OCBHS, said the program is a “community effort” and she is “excited” to see Onslow County participating.

“This program is completely different because you’re giving the law enforcement people, who are the first responders in almost all emergencies, the skills and abilities to recognize when a mentally ill person is experiencing an acute traumatic issue … and having the tools to know what the best response may be to deescalate them and get them to a treatment service,” she said.

Taggert said she hopes the CIT training will assist in preventing more law enforcement assisted suicide.

“The primary thing with CIT is also law enforcement safety. We recently, in Onslow County, had two or three police-assisted-suicides with people who had mental health issues or significant substance abuse issues,” she said. “Anything we can do to prevent that by educating and teaching people how to recognize a person at risk for that and then to respond differently … it’s a win-win situation for everyone.”

Part of the training included officers listening to “voices” and other sounds, similar to what someone with a mental illness might be hearing internally, for about an hour and being asked to perform tasks to answer questions while listening.

“We want them to understand that when they ask them a question … they may be tuned out. They may be listening to a different channel,” Stewart said.

Swansboro Police Lt. Steve Drew said this was one of the most effective parts of the CIT training.

“The methodology here is increased awareness of special needs people, increased ability to deal with them in a more effective manner and getting them treatment,” he said. “At lot of these are skills officers already have but (CIT training) refines them.”

Participants also visited two local day treatment programs to find out firsthand what the “consumers” impression of law enforcement is and how they can better accommodate them when necessary.

Stewart said the visits provided law enforcement officers with a “human connection” to the training they received throughout the week.

“We try to give them holistic training that they can use,” he said.

Drew said he appreciated getting feedback from the consumers.

“They want respect. They want us to listen instead of telling them what to do,” he said. “The more information the officer has to do their job on the street the better equipped they are to help the consumer.”

At the completion of the training, participating took part in role playing exercises where they were able to utilize the skills they had learned in various scenarios.

“You can’t do everything right every time and you’re never going to but the more you practice the better you get,” Drew said.

Kathy McDonald, detention officer from a neighboring county, said she believes the course is invaluable.

“There’s so many people out there that you judge before you even know what’s going on … with this course you kind of learn to identify those things,” she said.

Stewart said he’s looking forward to seeing the CIT training being used effectively.

“The next time I read in the paper, I want to see that there was a CIT officer on the scene and that they de-escalated the situation,” he said. “That’s my reward — that it worked.”