WEST WARWICK – U.S. Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., along with Thundermist Health Center representatives, announced Monday at the West Warwick Youth Center that police departments across Rhode Island will receive $1.2 million in federal funding to support crisis intervention training team training programs.
As part of the initiative, Reed and Whitehouse said Thundermist and the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association will equip police departments will tools to divert people in crisis away from the justice system, and connect them with necessary mental and behavioral health services. The initiative, which launches this fall, will include 24 training academies held over four years, including specialized academies to help communicate with youth about mental health and dealing with trauma in first responders. To date, approximately 60% of local police departments have already sent an officer to Thundermist-sponsored CIT training programs, Reed and Whitehouse said.
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The senators also said Thundermist will create workflows for 911 and local dispatchers to ensure CIT-trained officers and an embedded police clinician are sent to calls on an as-needed basis.
Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association Executive Director Sidney Wordell said in a statement that society is at a point in time that people rely on law enforcement officers to provide services to our communities like never before, and “none of those services are more important than when an individual or a family finds themselves in a behavioral health crisis.”
“We know our officers are not trained to make medical evaluations, but they are most often the first responders to provide assistance,” Wordell said. “These federal funds will expand our ability to train more officers and supporting personnel.”
Whitehouse said in a statement Monday crisis intervention and de-escalation training “helps officers do their jobs safely and effectively, and results in better outcomes for people dealing with mental health or addiction issues,” which, he says, benefit more from treatment than incarceration. Reed said the funding will forge a “strong partnership” between police, mental health experts and health care providers, where the result will be “a safer community and better outcomes for people experiencing mental health crises.”
Susan Jacobsen, Thundermist’s senior director of health equity initiatives, said in a statement that advocates have been working for decades to bring the Memphis Model Crisis Intervention Team program, which she calls the “gold standard” in crisis response, to Rhode Island. “CIT has 30 years of research proving it improves outcomes for people experiencing a behavioral health crisis. CIT increases diversion to treatment and recovery, reduces use of force, and improves officer wellness and safety,” Jacobsen said.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
