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NEWS and EVENTS
The 2009 Round of CIT Training for Police
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Every year for the last seven years, the Athens area CIT Committee, of which NAMI is a part, has run a five-day Crisis Intervention Training program for area law enforcement officers. Designed to teach SE Ohio officers to recognize "offenders" in mental health crises and get them to help rather than jail, the program had trained over 125 people.
However, with the 2008-9 economic crisis, several of the usual sources of funding for CIT and other mental health related programs dried up or were cut back.
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Nevertheless, due to successful fundraising, several generous memorial donations, and participation in the new Kroger Community Rewards Program, NAMI Athens was more than able to take up the slack. CIT did all the things it usually does, plus it brought in an outside speaker to address a new, very timely topic: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Veterans.
Interviewed in June on NAMI's mental health segment of WOUB radio's Conversations from Studio B, Vietnam Vet and PTSD-victim, Jim McGarrity, kept the trainees riveted. He talked about the trauma he suffered during the war, his extensive post-war experiences with untreated PTSD, and his recent recovery after treatment. With hundreds of thousands of Post-911 war veterans returning with PTSD - most of them as yet untreated - local law enforcement officers need to understand this phenomenon.
On the last day of training, 25 officers received their CIT pins. This brings to over 150 the total number in SE Ohio who are now trained to treat consumers in crisis in an effective yet kindly and respectful fashion.
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