Crisis intervention training to be assessed

The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, VA

About four years after the effort began to train police officers on how to interact with someone in the midst of a mental health crisis, the Thomas Jefferson Area Crisis Intervention Team is set to develop a data evaluation tool to see what effects the program has had.

The local CIT program has received a four-year, $71,200 grant through the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services to create a statewide CIT data evaluation tool, said CIT Coordinator Thomas von Hemert. Together with a local match of $3,560 and the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, von Hemert will work with a CIT program in the New River Valley to create the data collection methods.

Von Hemert said that generating statistics about the program will help determine which aspects of CIT are working and which aren’t.

Anecdotally, officials involved with CIT said it has made a positive impression on police officers and “consumers,” the term used for people suffering from mental illness. Albemarle police Officer Greg Davis, who was the first county officer to undergo CIT training and now is one of the trainers, said situations involving consumers in crisis end more peacefully now that he has had CIT training.

Sally Rinehart, president of the local affiliate of the National Alliance for Mental Illness, said family members call the police to help consumers in a psychotic state when that person isn’t cooperating with them because there is no one else to call. Prior to CIT training, Rinehart said, the process of turning a loved one over to a police officer was frightening and emotional.

“Now the policemen have been trained to sit, talk to the person and defuse the whole harangue,” Rinehartsaid. “It certainly calms everyone down. The parents and families are more confident in calling the policewhen they have to.”

When CIT training was first offered, there was some initial skepticism about the program and what it teaches.Davis said police officers have stereotypical reactions to consumers before receiving CIT training.

“A lot of times, people have misconceptions that people are choosing to act out or have a mental illness,”Davis said. “People think they’re acting that way because they think they’re in trouble. Once you have that training, you see the other side.”

The weeklong, 40-hour training begins with units about mental illness. Trainees also learn verbal de-escalation techniques and basic crisis intervention skills, take part in crisis scenarios and hear stories from consumers and war veterans. Von Hemert said one unit simulates what it’s like to have auditory schizophrenia.

Davis said the training teaches officers to be empathetic and understanding that the consumer is going through a crisis in order to de-escalate the situation.

“Communication is key,” Davis said. “You give the person time to vent. You use ‘I’ statements. We always tell them the truth. Those things go to building a rapport with a person.”

The Charlottesville-area program has trained more than 300 officers, including 65 percent of the patrol officers for police departments in the city, Albemarle County and the University of Virginia. About 25 of the jail’s 120 corrections officers have gone through the training, as have some 911 dispatchers.

At its inception, the local CIT program was only one of two funded by state criminal justice grants. Von Hemert said more than 60 percent of localities in Virginia now have a CIT program or are implementing one.

Although CIT has been able to come up with match funds each year to meet the requirements of its founding grant, that grant has expired.

The local CIT program is getting funding for training from the state’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, von Hemert said, but the funding may only be able to cover two 40-hour trainings instead of four.

While von Hemert only recently received the grant funding for the data evaluation tool, there are some statistics on how CIT training has affected situations involving mental crises. Von Hemert said 911 data shows most mental health crisis calls “resolve on location” or result in a voluntary transport to an appropriate facility instead of arrests. The time it takes for a city or county police officer to handle a crisis call that involves taking someone to the University of Virginia Medical Center for an evaluation has dropped from several hours to an average of 42 minutes.

The program also has made a difference in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail’s population. Before the CIT program was instituted, said jail Superintendent Col. Ronald Matthews, about four people a year who were charged with a crime in the middle of a mental health crisis ended up incarcerated longer than they would have been if convicted of the crime. Matthews said that has only happened once since the program began.

Von Hemert said the CIT program gained respect in its fledgling years because of the community’s support and the people involved.

“With that, we’ve developed new resources, new communications, policies and procedures to help enhance this critical issue,” von Hemert said.