THE PORTLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT'S CRISIS INTERVENTION TEAM PROGRAM

          CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) is a nationally recognized program for police intervention with individuals with mental illness. CIT was originally developed in Memphis through a collaboration of law enforcement, NAMI organization and mental health providers. Currently 20% of the Memphis patrol officers are part of the CIT program. This means that when a call comes to the police about a person experiencing a mental health crisis a CIT officer is dispatched. These officers are carefully selected and trained to respond in a manner effective in de-escalating the crisis and resolving the issue at hand safely for all involved.

          Police officers receive 40 hours of training with a special focus on effective communication skills and improved understanding of mental illness. In cities that implement this program, arrests of people with mental illness plummet, injuries to people with mental illness plummet, and people with mental illness actually discover that CIT officers respond in helpful ways when they respond to crisis.

          The research on CIT is significant for the positive impact it has on the lives of people with mental illness. Implementation of CIT has shown to effectively reduce the arrest rate of people with mental illness. CIT has also been proven to significantly reduce the repeated use of emergency mental health system and the criminal justice system by people with mental illness. The implementation of CIT is timely given the current crisis in Maine regarding the number of individuals who have mental illness and are in the criminal justice system.

           Last year, NAMI Maine obtained funding from the Margaret Burnham Charitable Trust and the Simmons Foundation to start a CIT program here in Portland.

           On October 29, 2001 through November 2,2001 a collaborative group from the Portland area attended CIT training in Memphis, Tennessee. The group included Sergeant Robin Gauvin of the Portland Police Department, Rob Ross of Ingraham, Joyce Cotton of Spring Harbor Hospital and Melissa Gattine of NAMI Maine.

          The contingent from Maine attended the same 40-hour training that police officers in Memphis attended when becoming CIT officers. The training included education about mental illness and special skills in de-escalating individuals in mental health crisis. A truly remarkable feature of the program is that almost a third of the training time is spent focusing on the perspectives of consumers and family members affected by mental illness.

          The very first class of CIT officers graduated in Portland on March 22, 2002. Eight Portland Police officers have been trained. Fifteen local organizations collaborated with the training and are available to assist CIT officers. These include NAMI CHOICES, Maine Medical Center, Spring Harbor Hospital, Ingraham, Amistad, and the Portland Coalition for the Psychiatrically Labeled. The Portland Police Department and NAMI Maine will be available to other cities in Maine who want to replicate this program.

WRITE
NAMI CHOICES
45 Exchange St
Portland, ME 04101
FOR MORE INFORMATION