Destigmatizing Attitudes Toward Mental Illness: A Crisis Intervention Team Approach

Crisis Intervention Plan Your Name Subject and Section Professor’s Name Date Introduction CIT program services are particular forms of cooperation between police and personnel of mental health that were created to raise the level of interaction with individuals in crisis or having mental disorders (Rogers et al., 2019). These strategic CIT programs are designed to help reduce information dissemination gaps and improve relations with members of the community. The article that this paper will analyze is Canada et al. (2020), the services provided by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and the corresponding course concept. Journal Article Overview Canada et al. (2020) mention correctional facilities. The study also aims to examine persons detained in psychiatric institutions and their time there. For this purpose, a quasi-experimental, mixed-methods study design was adopted for the actual research, with 235 COs who received the revised CIT training as the experimental group and 599 non-CIT COs as the control group. The findings indicated that the COs who undertook the CIT training had fewer stigmatizing attitudes, better mental health understanding, and a broader understanding of response options than the officers not trained in line with the CIT program. Moreover, the interviews, which were conducted 6 to 9 months after the training, revealed the fact that CIT-trained officers had a better ability to respond adequately to crises emerging from personnel having mental health issues. National Alliance on Mental Illness: A Brief Guide As mentioned by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (2024a, 2024b), CIT programs are critical in making sure that the divide between policed and mental health services in the communities is closed in the USA. NAMI has called attention to over 2,700 communities that have adopted CIT programs, arguing that these efforts help coordinate the efforts of law enforcement agencies, mental health workers, and hospital emergency services to enhance the way mental health crises are addressed. NAMI's mission is to support the affected individuals and their families through advocacy, education, mutual support, and awareness while improving communication, identifying resources, and ensuring the safety of officers and citizens through the CIT program (National Alliance on Mental Health, 2024a, 2024b). Crisis Intervention Plan and Its Connections to the Course Learnings Definition of Crisis Intervention Crisis intervention entails the short-term help given to an individual and that event in their lives that overwhelms their coping capacity. The course text defines it as an approach that seeks to ensure that the individual's functioning is stabilized and is oriented toward preventing the creation of long-term psychological damage (Jackson-Cherry & Erford, 2018). Categories of Crises Jackson-Cherry & Erford (2018) identified four categories of crises: Developmental (normal stage in the life cycle), situational (circumstantial), existential (about identity and purpose), and ecosystemic (affecting everyone within a co...