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Crisis Intervention Team

Crisis Intervention Team, CIT, is a community-based program that promotes strong working partnerships between emergency services and mental health services with the common goal of providing appropriate intervention, care and support to individuals in a mental health or emotionally disturbed crisis.

The Lower Mainland CIT program integrates training components for police, ER nurses, paramedics, social workers, addictions counselors, and others to build stronger partnerships that continue to grow in their shared community. The goal is to bridge any gaps for service and to ensure that all mentally ill persons in crisis receive continuity of care from all services involved.

Video description: Police are re-enacting a scenario in a theater on handling people with mental illness, as well as interviews with various speakers.

Transcription Police: Hello, it's the police.

Are you OK?

Female: Yep, thank you.

Tina Donnelly - Mental Health, Fraser Health: About 30% of people with mental illness, their first contact in a crisis situation is with the police, and fire trucks may be called.

I have seen all kinds of responses to some poor individual who is having a mental crisis is terrifying.

If those people have some training, have some background, that first experience for people can be less dramatic.

Constable Lara Davidsen - RCMP Crisis Intervention Training Coordinator: As a police officer and I can probably speak for the partners that I am lined up in the Health Authorities, we see that there is a need for dealing with people that are in crisis.

We often see people on the streets that may look like they are homeless but a lot of them are suffering with mental disorders.

Constable Ronda Rempel - Mental Health Coordinator of Richmond: RCMP Police officers trained in crisis intervention as first responders to the individual in crisis are able to identify and recognize behaviours which requires crisis intervention not criminalization.

These enhanced skills of the police officers often enable them to deescalate the situation.

Renea Mohammed - Trainer/Mental Health Patient: It's really important that I think to have training so that people can provide service to folks that are struggling in mental illness in a way that is gonna feel alright for that person, in a way that is not dramatic.

I think it's important to have the training to kind of to be able to set yourself up as an ally when you are working with people.

And to have a good positive relationship so that you can be in position where you can make a difference for someone.

Camia Weaver - Canadian Mental Health Association: One of the really good things about this model is it actually goes beyond the traditional CIT training in that it's a collaborative training.

It's not just police, it also dispatchers, ambulance attendants and psychiatric nurses who work in emergencies.

So, you develop a team that is working together to improve interactions that people with mental illness have when they come into contacts with the police.

Karen Bunner - Mental Health and Addictions, Surrey: It is a venue that the police and the mental health can learn more about each other and there is some terrific dialogue that happened during the training.

There is connections made.

I think that really helped in situations when police are called to the community to deal with an emotionally disturbed person.

They have that knowledge.

The mental health professionals and workers have knowledge about the police and what they can do or can't do, and vice versa.

So, I think it's critical that this kind of training occurs.

It's all about collaboration and building relationships.

This is a great way of doing that.

Cst. Lara Davidsen: People that are suffering with a mental crisis, it's not a criminal behaviour.

So, we want to divert people from the criminal justice system into the mental health system and the appropriate resources, finding the right place for them, and not on the street dealing with us.

So, to be ready for that.
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The original CIT model was developed in 1988 by Major Sam Cochrane, Memphis Police Department and Dr Randolph Dupont, University of Tennessee. The CIT concept is also in place in a few Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Hamilton, Ottawa, and Chatam-Kent to name a few.

After two successful pilots in 2004 and 2005 between Burnaby RCMP and Burnaby Fraser Health Authority, the Lower Mainland District RCMP took further steps to promote and integrate this program throughout the entire Lower Mainland of BC. This was done in concert with Fraser Health Authority, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, BC Schizophrenia Society, Canadian Mental Health Association, and several other valuable partnership agencies.

CIT is offered to individuals who want to represent their agency as the resources for information on assisting a mentally ill person in crisis. Some of these selected personnel have an interest in helping the mentally ill, maybe a background education in psychology, or a general interest in the area.

Members of this select core group continue with their regular duties at their existing agencies and when a call for services comes in the CIT trained member will attend if available.

These dedicated first responders will proudly represent the Lower Mainland CIT program and promote a proactive image of specialized services to our communities and enhance service delivery to clients with mental or emotional health issues.