Abstract
A disproportionate number of people with mental illness are involved in critical police encounters resulting in arrest and/or excessive use of force. In response, many jurisdictions have implemented Crisis Intervention Team training. This mixed method study used survey and focus group interview data to investigate Crisis Intervention Teams in rural communities in a Northeastern state in the U.S. Findings indicate that unique situational realities prevent optimal effectiveness of Crisis Intervention Teams in rural jurisdictions. Three themes emerged as clear barriers to effectiveness: (a) time and money; (b) buy-in and support for Crisis Intervention Teams; and (c) systemic barriers to adequate care. Rural-specific impediments affect each aspect and member of Crisis Intervention Teams in rural jurisdictions. Efforts to develop a specialized police response training program for rural jurisdictions should be developed and examined.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Change history
09 March 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-021-00812-x
Notes
Individuals designated to lead in the development/implementation of a CIT program in any given community; individuals should remain diplomatic, and their primary roles involve inter-agency communications, data collection and management, and the scheduling of training (Dupont et al. 2007, p. 13). Certification is suggested, and offered by CIT International.
Executive steering committees consist of community stakeholders representing law enforcement, professional service providers (public welfare, human services, drug and alcohol, behavioral health), and advocates/advocacy. groups (varied, can include consumers and caregivers) who are invested in the success of CIT. They meet periodically at the lead of the CIT Coordinator, and plan curriculum, training, and community awareness opportunities.
References
Borum, R., & Franz, S. (2011). Crisis intervention teams may prevent arrests of people with mental illness. Mental Health Law & Policy, 12(3), 265–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2010.497664.
Bratina, M. P. (2017). Forensic mental health: Framing integrated solutions. New York, NY: Routledge.
Bratina, M. P., Carrero, K. M., Kim, B., & Merlo, A. V. (2020). Crisis intervention team training: When police encounter persons with mental illness. Police Practice and Research, 21(3), 279–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2018.1484290.
Compton, M. T., Broussard, B., Hankerson-Dyson, D., Krishan, S., Stewart, T., Oliva, J. R., et al. (2010). System-and policy-level challenges to full implementation of the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model. Journal of Police Crisis Negotiations, 10(1–2), 72–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332581003757347.
Curry, L., & Nunez-Smith, M. (2017). Mixed methods in health sciences research: A practical primer. Thousand Oaks: CA. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483390659.
Dupont, R., Cochran, S., & Pillsbury, S. (2007, September). Crisis intervention team core elements. The University of Memphis. Retrieved December 23, 2020 from http://cit.memphis.edu/CoreElements.pdf.
Flick, U. (2019). Triangulation. London: SAGE Publications.
Heun-Johnson, H., Menchine, M., Goldman, D., & Seabury, S. (2018). The cost of mental illness: Illinois facts and figures. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics. https://healthpolicy.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IL-Chartbook-v3-2019.pdf.
Krider, A., Huerter, R., Gaherty, K., & Moore, A. (2020, January). Responding to individuals in behavioral health crisis via co-responder models: The roles of cities, counties, law enforcement, and providers. Policy Research, Inc. and National League of Cities. https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/SJCResponding%20to%20Individuals.pdf.
Mulvey, E. P., & Schubert, C. A. (2016, November 21). A multi-county evaluation of Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) in Pennsylvania (Grant #24225). Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. https://pacrimestats.info/PCCDReports/EvaluationResearch/Completed%20Research/Multi-County%20Evaluation%20of%20Crisis%20Intervention%20Teams%20(CIT)%20in%20Pennsylvania/Multi-County%20Evaluation%20of%20Crisis%20Intervention%20Teams%20(CIT)%20in%20Pennsylvania/CIT.pdf.
Munetz, M. R., & Griffin, P. A. (2006). Use of the sequential intercept model as an approach to decriminalization of people with serious mental illness. Psychiatric Services, 57(4), 544–549.
National Alliance on Mental Illness. (2019). Mental health by the numbers. Author. Retrieved December 22, 2020, from https://www.nami.org/mhstats.
Ogloff, J. R. P., Thomas, S. D. M., Luebbers, S., Baksheev, G., Elliott, I., Godfredson, J., et al. (2013). Policing services with mentally ill people: Developing greater understanding and best practice. Australian Psychologist, 48, 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1742-9544.2012.00088.x.
Pennsylvania Mental Health and Justice Center of Excellence. (2016). Data shows police lack Crisis Intervention Team training to deal with mentally ill. http://www.pacenterofexcellence.pitt.edu/.
Pollack, H. A., & Humphreys, K. (2020). Reducing violent incidents between police officers and people with psychiatric or substance use disorders. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 687(1), 166–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716219897057.
Seo, C., Kim, B., & Kruis, N. E. (2021). Variation across police response models for handling encounters with people with mental illnesses: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Criminal Justice, 72, 101752
Skubby, D., Bonfine, N., Novisky, M., Munetz, M. R., & Ritter, C. (2013). Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) sprograms in rural communities: A focus group study. Community Mental Health Journal, 49(6), 756–764. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-012-9517-y.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA]. (2018). Crisis intervention team (CIT) methods for using data to inform practice: A step-by-step guide (HHS Pub. No. SMA-18-5065). Author. https://store.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/d7/priv/sma18-5065.pdf.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA] Pre-Arrest Diversion Expert Panel. (2019). Tailoring crisis response and pre-arrest diversion models for rural communities. Author.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA] (2020, June 30). The Sequential Intercept Model (SIM). https://www.samhsa.gov/criminal-juvenile-justice/sim-overview.
Taheri, S. A. (2016). Do crisis intervention teams reduce arrests and improve officer safety? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 27(1), 76–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403414556289.
The Center for Rural Pennsylvania. (2017). Demographics: Rural urban definitions. Retrieved December 23, 2020 from https://www.rural.palegislature.us/demographics_rural_urban.html.
The University of Memphis. (n. d.) CIT center: A resource for CIT programs across the nation. Retrieved December 20, 2020 from http://www.cit.memphis.edu/.
Usher, L., Watson, A. C., Bruno, R., Andriukaitis, S., Kamin, D., Speed, C., & Taylor, S. (2019). Crisis intervention team (CIT) programs: A best practice guide for transforming community responses to mental health crises. Memphis: CIT International.
Vaismoradi, M., Turunen, H., & Bondas, T. (2013). Content analysis and thematic analysis: Implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study. Nursing & Health Sciences, 15(3), 398–405.
Ward, K. C., & Merlo, A. V. (2016). Rural jail reentry and mental health: Identifying challenges for offenders and professionals. The Prison Journal, 96(1), 27–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885515605473.
Watson, A. C., Compton, M. T., & Pope, L. G. (2019). Crisis response services for people with mental illnesses or intellectual and developmental disabilities. Vera Institute of Justice. Retrieved December 23, 2020 from https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/crisis-response-services-for-people-with-mental-illnesses-or-intellectual-and-developmental-disabilities.pdf.
Wood, J. D., & Watson, A. C. (2017). Improving police interventions during mental health-related encounters: Past, present and future. Policing and Society, 27(3), 289–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2016.1219734.
Xian, Y., Schiele, B., & Akata, Z. (2017). Zero-shot learning-the good, the bad and the ugly. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (pp. 4582–4591). https://store.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/d7/priv/sma19-5097.pdf.
Funding
Our work was funded by West Chester University’s Provost Research Grant.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
We have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
The original online version of this article was revised: In Abstract, the word "effect" was corrected as "affect" and in Results section, under “Time and Money”, the last sentence has been deleted.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bratina, M.P., Carsello, J.A., Carrero, K.M. et al. An Examination of Crisis Intervention Teams in Rural Jurisdictions. Community Ment Health J 57, 1388–1398 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-021-00797-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-021-00797-7