Officers Jared Bradley and Kristen Cassario-Smith took the call Thursday for a frantic woman standing in the middle of Haddon Avenue in Collingswood.
The duo coaxed and pleaded, trying to calm the hysterical woman. The woman was determined to stop traffic because she thought motorists were driving in the wrong direction.
After three minutes the role play ended and Bradley, a Burlington Township officer, and Cassario-Smith, a Winslow officer, received feedback on how to better respond to the fictional scenario of a woman who was mentally ill.
Bradley and Cassario-Smith were among officers from several departments across the state to receive training this week on dealing with mentally ill people and finding alternatives to arresting them.
The training is the latest in the effort to expand teams of officers and mental health workers trained in crisis intervention across the state.
"This is something that every community should have," said Collingswood Police Chief Thomas Garrity, who has championed the program since helping launch the state's first Crisis Intervention Team in Collingswood as part of a 2005 Camden County pilot.
To date, about 150 officers and mental health providers have received training through the county program, which is based on a model from Memphis, Tenn.
Across the state, inmates with mental health issues make up just over 13 percent of all inmates in state prisons, according to Department of Corrections data.
"The biggest advantage is the more police departments who are trained to have Crisis Intervention Teams and have a better understanding of mental illness . . . the less individuals with mental illness end up entangled with the criminal justice system," said Steven Fishbein, supervisor of psychiatric rehabilitation services for the state's Division of Mental Health Service.
The Crisis Intervention Team partners county resources, local law enforcement and mental health professionals in an effort to train officers in de-escalating mental illness crisis situations and to direct those with mental illness away from the criminal justice system and toward county and outside mental health providers.
This week representatives from Ocean County and Burlington Township joined with other local officers here in 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Team training, Garrity said.
The hope is that representatives from other counties will use the training to go back and help start similar programs in their communities, Fishbein said.
This year, the division and the state Attorney General's Office began funding the county program to further training across the state.
"A full team in every county would be wonderful," Fishbein said. Several counties, including Mercer, Ocean, Morris and Passaic, are exploring the program.
Burlington Township Director of Police Walter Corter said he decided to send two officers to the training session after seeing a presentation by Garrity.
"I think it's a program that the police department and the general public can benefit from," Corter said.
Locally, officers from Cherry Hill, Haddon Township, Audubon, Haddon Heights, Winslow, Gloucester Township, Pine Hill, Lindenwold, Camden County parks and Rutgers-Camden University have undergone Crisis Intervention Team training, Garrity said.
The training, which is provided at no cost by mental health officials who are a part of the program, introduces police officers to various mental illnesses and the effects of psychotropic medication. Officers also learn suicide prevention techniques and how to de-escalate a situation verbally. They hear from people suffering with mental illness and visit county mental health facilities and the Camden County Jail.
Cherry Hill Police Lt. Dennis Nelson said his department receives about one call a day for some type of mental health situation.
Now, having sent 20 officers through the Crisis Intervention Team training, the department is better equipped to deal with the need, he said.
"(The officers) have an understanding as to why the behavior is occurring so they have a lot of options as to what they can use," Nelson said.
The county has also worked to streamline what happens after a mental health crisis. Through the Crisis Intervention Team, a mental health screening system was set up at Kennedy University Hospital in Cherry Hill. Police can turn a person over to medical professionals there within 20 minutes. At that point, their job is done. County service providers then take over, evaluating the person and providing treatment.
Previously, officers would drop people off at the county jail or take them to a hospital emergency room and wait for hours as they were treated, Garrity said.
While studies haven't been done on how exactly the new effort has directly affected the jail, Sgt. Reginald Jackson, with the county jail, said the type of offenders being admitted to the jail's mental health ward seems to have changed. Fewer inmates with minor offenses are now being admitted to the mental health ward.
The population of the ward, which was in the mid-60s before the effort, now averages in the 50s, said Reginald, who helped bring the Crisis Intervention Team to the county.
The county embraced the Crisis Intervention Team model in 2005 shortly after Joel Seidel, a mentally ill Cherry Hill man, was beaten to death in the Camden County jail's mental health wing by a younger, stronger man with a history of violent behavior.
Earlier this month a suicidal woman armed with a knife locked herself in the bathroom of a Collingswood doctor's office. Instead of arresting the woman, Garrity said officers from the borough's Crisis Intervention Team talked to her and calmly took her to a crisis center.
Before, the woman would likely have been charged with a weapons offense and placed in the already overcrowded county jail, Garrity said.
"That's what the Crisis Intervention Team is all about," Garrity said. "(The officers) understand the person isn't doing it out of criminal mind-set. It's a big leap in law enforcement. It's a culture shift for us."
Reach George Mast at (856) 486-2465 at gmast@camden.gannett.com
mummer18, 
JD, 
cwawak is discussing. 
mbalboa 12:24 pm on November 28, 2009 Permalink |
I hope that the stringband member is ok!
Julia Hays 1:01 pm on November 28, 2009 Permalink |
According to our reporter who was present, ambulances responded promptly, and the band member was taken to the hospital. There’s no current word on his condition.
JD 2:17 pm on November 28, 2009 Permalink |
I was standing maybe 15 feet from where he collapsed, it didn’t look good, they couldn’t recusitate him. I was in tears and almost walked home because it was so sad and scary.
mummer18 3:07 pm on November 30, 2009 Permalink |
I am sad to say the gentleman from the Polish American String Band did not survive.