Park Forest Police Department issued the following announcement on Oct. 6.
1 in 5 Adults have a mental health condition; that’s over 40 million Americans. Of that population, 1 in 10 have police involved in their pathway to mental healthcare. We’re proud to announce that we have completed a pledge to improve our response to those who deal with mental illness in our community. The pledge is part of an initiative called the One Mind Campaign started by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), a 30,000 member professional association for law enforcement that provides training, technical assistance, and recruitment services.
While this initiative has Four Promising Practices that we were asked to complete, the one we are most proud of is having 95% of all non-probationary field personnel trained and certified on the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training. CIT Training is an intensive week long class designed to train officers on how to respond to calls that involve individuals with mental health disorders. The officers are educated on de-escalation techniques as well as live role-play scenarios of officers responding to persons who need mental health assistance.
If you or a loved one is suffering from a mental illness and have nowhere to turn, please reach out for help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline has trained crisis workers available to talk 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255. For general information on mental health and to locate treatment services in your area the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has a treatment referral helpline at 1-800-662-4357. As always if you need us please call us.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Park Forest Police Department
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