Crisis Intervention Team Trains First Responders On Mental Health Issues

A special law enforcement training program in Forsyth County turns ten this year. 

It's called Crisis Intervention Team, and it aims to helps first responders recognize those experiencing a mental health crisis. In the past decade, over 750 people have gone through the training.

There are classroom discussions on mental health illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Afterwards, participants go through a simulation on what it's like to hear voices. At the same time, they're asked to do different activities, like reading, or being questioned.    

Andy Hagler with The Mental Health Association in Forsyth County says this kind of training teaches officers how to get the proper help for an individual in distress. The officers use an MP4 device that simulates "experiencing auditory hallucinations," which according to Hagler is "the most common of the hallucinations."

Hagler says this particular exercise can help foster empathy. It shows "how difficult it is to concentrate, to focus. And it helps law enforcement to see things through their lens, and get a little better understanding.”

An analysis by The Washington Post on fatal police shootings found that in 2015 and 2016, about a quarter of them involved someone suffering from a mental illness.