Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Programs
Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Programs
https://www.nami.org/advocacy/crisis-intervention/crisis-intervention-team-cit-programs/
CIT programs create connections between law enforcement, mental health providers, hospital emergency services, and individuals with mental illness and their families.
Through collaborative community partnerships and intensive training, CIT improves communication, identifies mental health resources for those in crisis, and ensures officer and community safety.
Not only can CIT programs bring community leaders together, they can also help keep people with mental illness out of jail and in treatment, on the road to recovery.
That’s because diversion programs like CIT reduce arrests of people with mental illness while simultaneously increasing the likelihood that individuals will receive mental health services.
NAMI and our national partners have developed many resources to support local communities to start or enhance their CIT programs:
Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Programs: A Best Practice Guide for Transforming Community Responses to Mental Health Crises: Developed by CIT International, this guide shares best practices for starting and sustaining CIT programs.
Many other guides are on this website too.