FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Deputies Complete Intensive Crisis Intervention Training
Contact: Susan Lilly, Public Information Officer 970-729-2028
susanl@sanmiguelsheriff.org
April 30, 2018 -- (Telluride, CO) – Two San Miguel County Sheriff’s Deputies completed a week-long intensive and challenging crisis intervention course Friday (April 27th) designed to help manage crisis situations involving mentally ill subjects.
Deputy Kattie Neesham and Deputy Paula Martinez of the Sheriff’s Operations Division will be strategically scheduled to help ensure at least one of them is available to respond and assist with these types of crisis situations.
Sheriff Bill Masters said, “This is of tremendous value to our peace-keeping team, but especially to our community as we are seeing a steady increase in incidents involving the mentally ill.”
In addition to classroom-based training, each participant was required to successfully complete increasingly difficult scenario-based problems with role-playing actors.
The course titled "Crisis Intervention Teams Training" was sponsored by the County Sheriff's of Colorado in La Junta, Colorado.
The following is an excerpt from the course description:
"The Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) model was developed in 1988 in Memphis, Tennessee as a partnership between law enforcement, advocacy groups and treatment providers for people with mental illness, and other community stakeholders to manage crisis situations involving mentally ill subjects. Since that time, many law enforcement agencies have adopted the program and have realized significant benefits in their communities through dramatic declines in injury rates among both citizens and police officers, decreased utilization of SWAT teams to resolve crisis situations and the diversion of people with mental illness from incarceration to community-based mental health services. The goals of CIT are to train law enforcement officers in the recognition of mental illness, to enhance their verbal crisis de-escalation skills, and to provide more streamlined access to community-based mental health services. By engaging mental health consumers with appropriate community supports, the well being of the individual and the safety of the community can both be enhanced."
The deputies will be attending an additional specialized school within the next year that specializes in dealing with minors and teenagers in crisis.
Sheriff Masters said, “I appreciate the extra efforts of these deputies, and I know that this training will benefit our agency and our community for years to come.”
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The San Miguel Sheriff’s Office, located in Telluride, Colorado and established in 1883, serves 7,800 residents and countless visitors across the 1,288 square miles of San Miguel County. Sheriff Bill Masters has been serving as the county’s elected Sheriff since 1980