Seattle University Collaborative Projects - International Academy of ...

their wishes are not satisfied they respond with threats and attacks. Moreover, most patientspresenting with DMS misidentify individuals that have a great emotional importance for them.This is the reason that some of the victims might be unrelated to the victim but are well knownindividuals from politics or the media. This presentation will discuss recent neurobiologicalfindings for DMS and the association between DMS and violence35. The Crisis Intervention Team Model of Police Response toPersons with Mental Illness: Outcomes, Barriers, and FutureDirections for ResearchThe Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Program as a Method of Reducing Stigmatowards Individuals with Serious Mental Illnesses among Police OfficersBeth Broussard, George Washington University (bbroussard@mfa.gwu.edu)The extensive entanglement of persons with serious mental illnesses in the criminal justicesystem is a major public health concern and has become an area of action in the lawenforcement, advocacy, mental health, and public health communities. As gatekeepers to thecriminal justice and mental health systems, officer attitudes towards and decisions about personswith serious mental illnesses may have immediate and longer-term consequences for individuals,systems, and communities. In particular, stigmatizing attitudes may result in greater use of forceand greater risk of injury for all involved, lower likelihood of assistance in accessing care, lesswillingness to view the individual as a credible crime victim or take action on his/her behalf,greater likelihood of arrest, and generally less than optimal decisions in responding to mentalhealth-related situations. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the limited butgrowing literature on programs implemented to decrease stigma towards such individuals amongpolice officers. In particular, we will review the effects of the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)program on decreasing officers’ stigma, which may improve safety and referral decisions and, inturn, outcomes of persons with mental illnesses who have encounters with the police. For thisreview, we conducted a search using relevant social sciences and criminal justice databases toidentify pertinent articles, reports, abstracts, and dissertations for inclusion. Examination of pastprograms implemented in law enforcement reveal that although educational interventions areeffective in improving knowledge and understanding, those incorporating personal contact moreconsistently decrease stigma. Preliminary research suggests CIT reduces stigma in the areas ofattitudes, attributions, and social distance. A theoretical framework for how CIT likely impactsstigma is presented. Areas for future programmatic and research consideration will also bediscussed, such as possible expansion of the model to other first-responder groups.The Costs and Potential Cost Savings of Implementing the Crisis InterventionTeam (CIT) Program88