Agencies receive crisis intervention training

A two-day conference last week, "Train the Trainer," funded by CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs, provided training for local law enforcement and community members to improve crisis intervention skills.

Garland County Sheriff's Department and Hot Spring Police Department officers, members from the Little Rock Airforce Base, Arkansas Tech University, Ouachita Behavioral Health and Wellness and One Wing Counseling attended the conference held Thursday and Friday at the Garland County Detention Center.

The project, spearheaded by Under Sheriff Jason Lawrence, is intended to equip law enforcement across the region to meet the requirements of Act 423.

Susie Reynolds Reece, CHI St. Vincent Violence Prevention Specialist, said Act 423 is a comprehensive act that focuses on crisis stabilization units and adjusting care to help those with mental illness.

"This is giving law enforcement the ability to address the issue of mentally ill in our community and work in coordination with our community to find an approach to help them," Lawrence said.

The training, led by retired police officer Sam Cochran of the University of Memphis Crisis Intervention Team, Randolph Dupont, a professor at the university, and Dr. Tom Kirchberg, chief psychologist at the VA Medical Center in Memphis, allowed participants to role-play scenarios to practice their crisis interventions skills.

Lawrence said officer safety and community involvement are paramount to crisis prevention.

"One of the key components to CIT is to find a way to reduce the number of those that will be incarcerated," he said. "It's bigger than just for our community, it's for our state and our country."

Reece said crisis intervention is broader than just suicide prevention, including other aspects such as verbal de-escalation, safety for law enforcement, awareness for the community and aid for those undergoing mental breaks.

"The hope is that this will be the first step towards better access to resources, increasing mental health services to those in need and improving connectivity of community members," she said.

Local on 06/18/2018

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