Oregon begins crisis intervention training for 911 operators

Across the nation, first responders (law enforcement, fire and EMS) are helping residents in crisis on a daily basis. To assist our state’s first responders with training for these types of incidents, Oregon identified the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model as an effective and collaborative approach for law enforcement response to persons with a mental health crisis.

Here’s the rest of a news release issued Wednesday by the state Department of Public Safety and Standards Training about the new program:

One component of CIT is a 40-hour training class that includes information on mental health, de-escalation, consumer voices, resources, and other issues that are specific to a jurisdiction.

With staffing and funds provided by the Oregon Legislative Assembly and Oregon Health Authority, the Department of Public Safety and Standards Training (DPSST) in collaboration with Greater Oregon Behavioral Health, Inc. (GOBHI) created Oregon’s CIT Center of Excellence (CITCOE).

CITCOE serves as a training resource clearinghouse which works with law enforcement and behavioral health agencies across the state to develop, implement and support CIT’s. Currently there are 26 CIT’s in Oregon and several more are being developed.

The more than 900 women and men who work around our state as 9-1-1 communications professionals are an important part of the public safety family and in many ways are the first, first responder. Their interaction with a person in crisis is different than with other first responders as they can only rely on the information they can gather by talking with a caller over the phone, or via Text to 9-1-1, as opposed to interacting with an individual in person. This specialized contact does not make the 40-hour CIT training ideal for the public safety telecommunicator.

To help address this need, approximately 18 months ago, an ad-hoc work group was formed that brought together interested parties from across Oregon. This dedicated team spent countless hours to develop a Public Safety Telecommunicator CIT that will be relevant to 9-1-1 professionals in all areas of the state.

The CIT training class will be a model that can be used by an individual agency or as a regional 9-1-1 CIT training opportunity in different parts of the state. The pilot Oregon Public Safety Telecommunicator CIT class will be held on February 20-21. This class will be offered at DPSST’s Oregon Public Safety Academy in Salem. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first statewide class of its type in the nation.

The 9-1-1 CIT work group was co-chaired by Melanie Payne with Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications (BOEC) and Erica Stolhand of Hood River County 9-1-1. Work group members included Sgt. Bill Wright of the Umatilla Police Department, Sgt. Jason Ritter of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, Captain Jason Wade of the University of Oregon Police Department, 9-1-1 Supervisor Jennifer Reynolds of Central Lane 9-1-1 (Eugene), Telecommunicator Jeremy Hipes of Clackamas County 9-1-1, Communications Supervisor Karen Primmer of the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office, 9-1-1 Training Coordinator Karma Fletchall of the Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency (WCCCA), 9-1-1 Training Supervisor Megan Craig Deschutes County 9-1-1, Emergency Communications Supervisor Mickie Reed Portland BOEC, Officer Tom Hietala of the Bend Police Department, 9-1-1 Training Program Coordinator Tamara Atkinson of DPSST, Training Coordinator Eilene Florey of GOBHI/CITCOE, and Crisis Intervention Training Program Coordinator Linda Maddy of DPSST.

DPSST Director Eriks Gabliks said “public safety agencies around Oregon work in partnership with both public and non-profit organizations in communities around our state to help our residents in crisis. The program this work group created to train our 9-1-1 professionals to assist people in crisis is greatly appreciated and will help make a difference in our emergency response system.”