Schuylkill county mental health and developmental services (mhds), is seeking $287,447.30 to create a schuylkill county regional crisis intervention team (CIT) in schuylkill county, pennsylvania

This team will be based on both the university of memphis crisis intervention team core elements and the academic training to inform police responses best practice guide. The program will serve to better prepare officers and first responders for contact with consumers who may have mental health diagnoses or dual diagnoses and are at risk of involvement with the criminal justice system. The training component of the CIT will seek to train 60% of law enforcement officers (leos) and 911 dispatchers in a 6-hour introductory crisis training and recruit 25% of LEO's to attend the 40-hour CIT training. The training will also be open to first responders, correction officers, probation officers and crisis workers. As part of the CIT a crisis intervention team task force will be created. The mission of the task force will be to build and improve community partnerships with all first responders, families, consumers, criminal justice agencies, mental health organizations and any related social service agencies. This task force will serve as a resource hub and review/support source for first responders dealing with particularly challenging situations. Once trained, CIT officers will be equipped to divert, when appropriate, those showing signs of mental illness to treatment rather than incarceration. This project is being led by schuylkill county mental health/ developmental services (mhds) and working in conjunction with the tamaqua police department. An overriding goal of the CIT will be to divert people in mental health distress from arrest and incarceration in and overcrowded schuylkill county jail to alternative crisis and treatment options. Ongoing data collection will be able to pinpoint "familiar faces", analyze the efficacy of the CIT and highlight specific issues of training needed by LEO's and first responders.