"This is for Real" - Crisis Intervention Team Training 

"We called Communicare. They legitimately came out, stood hip to hip with one of our officers . . . Everybody on the scene, you could see it in their eyes. They went, 'This is for real.'"
That's how Oxford Police Department Chief Jeff McCutchen described his department's first experience in utilizing their Crisis Intervention Team. CIT is a partnership between law enforcement and mental health professionals. Officers who have received crisis intervention training respond to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis and divert them to an appropriate setting to provide treatment, ensuring individuals are not arrested and taken to jail due to the symptoms of their illness.
Chief McCutchen, Communicare Executive Director Melody Madaris, and other law enforcement officers recently discussed CIT at a recent training event in North Mississippi. Hear their thoughts on the value of CIT training here.