April 13, 2017
The Honorable Robin Kelly and Grace Napolitano
United States House of Representatives
Washington DC, 20515
Dear Representatives Robin Kelly and Grace Napolitano:
CIT International is supporting the effort by Representatives Robin Kelly (D-IL) and Grace Napolitano (D-AZ) to increase training for law enforcement on responding to individuals with mental illness and co-occurring substance use needs.
CIT International is a non-profit organization supporting law enforcement, behavioral health, and consumer partnerships in efforts to effectively de-escalate mental health or co-occurring substance use crises, and re-direct people in crisis away from the criminal justice system and into behavioral health facilities.
While CIT International supports all efforts to increase and improve law enforcement training for response to mental health and co-occurring crises, we know from years of experience and research that training is not enough to have the system impact that is needed in communities across our nation. At its core, Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Programs are community collaborations, not just training. Effective CIT programs have 5 key training and community collaboration elements:
- Community Collaboration: For CIT to be effective, there must be strong community partnerships built among entities including mental health, substance use, law enforcement, consumers/advocates, jail, hospitals, social service entities, and government. Solutions are developed together, rather than in silos.
- Forty (40) hours of specialized training for first responders taught by local subject matter experts from the law enforcement, behavioral health and consumer advocacy fields. Upon completion of the course, first responders are better equipped to:
- Understand common signs and symptoms of mental illnesses and co-occurring disorders;
- Safely de-escalate individuals experiencing behavioral health crises;
- Utilize community resources to divert to treatment instead of the criminal justice system, whenever appropriate;
- Behavioral Health Staff Training:
- Educate Behavioral Health Staff on Law Enforcement and First Responder Culture;
- Build partnerships and resources that help to encourage First Responders to utilize community resources;
- A Vibrant and Accessible Crisis System, responsive to the needs of law enforcement: A community crisis system must be friendly to law enforcement, including a turnaround drop off time that is reasonable (typically 15 min or less), and a “no wrong door” policy; In order for law enforcement to utilize a crisis system over the jail, their crisis system will take the person off law enforcement’s hands, and then triage as necessary.
- Family, Consumer and Advocate Involvement: Critical to every effective CIT program is active involvement of individuals, family members, and advocates who suffer from mental illness and are in various stages of recovery. It is essential for law enforcement to interact with individuals in recovery, learn about the illness and challenges faced, and that there is active participation on the policy, procedure and legislative levels.
Effective CIT Programs have shown some of the following benefits:
1310 N 78th Terr.
POB 12388
Kansas City, KS 66112
888|738-2484 (CITI)
- Trained response to behavioral health crisis calls
- Reduced unnecessary arrests or use of force
- Increased officer safety
- Increased jail diversion
- More efficient use of criminal justice resources
- Reduced officer/citizen injuries
- Positive community perception
- Increased chance for consumer to connect to the behavioral health system
- Linkages to long‐term services promoting recovery
- Increased officer confidence in skills
- Reduced liability
1310 N 78th Terr.
POB 12388
Kansas City, KS 66112
888|738-2484 (CITI)
Increasing money invested in states and communities across this nation to improve law enforcement response to people in mental health and co-occurring crisis is essential. CIT International not only advocates for this, but also advocates for the development of state-wide CIT coordinators in all 50 states to coordinate efforts at the local, state and national level. A federal investment to improve outcomes for both law enforcement and people suffering from mental illness is an investment in the health and economic future of our nation. Thank you for making a federal response to people in mental health crisis a high priority for our nation. Please also consider investing in not only more training for law enforcement, but perhaps more importantly, for more CIT programs (training + community partnership) that focus on a better coordinated community, state and nation-wide change effort.
Thank you for your leadership on this very important issue. CIT International would be honored to work with other national partners on the development of a legislative bill. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to further discuss this.
Respectfully,
Julie Solomon
Julie Solomon, LSCSW, MBA
Chief Administrative Officer
CIT International
Kansas City, KS 66112
Cell: 913-707-7662
1310 N 78th Terr.
POB 12388
Kansas City, KS 66112
888|738-2484 (CITI)