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A crisis event, for example a person suffering the tragic effects of a mental health disability such as alcoholism or drug addiction, calls for an intervention directed by professionals who can make sure they accept the help they need before it's too late. A Crisis Intervention Team in Lee is a form of community monitoring which calls upon and activates healthcare, law enforcement and other relevant agencies as well as family members to help individuals in crisis. This starts with the training and education of healthcare providers, law enforcement officers, and other participating team members in the community so they learn how to react and work together during such a crisis. There are training programs offered to educate law enforcement officers and 911 emergency dispatchers for example, which involves 40 hours of training in collaborating with the mental health professionals they will be working with during the crisis, learning verbal de-escalation skills so that they can address and handle the crisis without it developing into a potentially combative or aggressive episode, etc.
In many instances, Crisis Intervention Teams are used as a means of jail diversion. Meaning, being able to properly respond to the incident as a health episode and not a crime helps keep people having a mental health crisis out of jail and where they should be, in a hospital or treatment setting receiving help. This also keeps people with mental health problems out of prison where they do not have access to adequate mental health therapy and resources to appropriately handle their disorder, such as a substance abuse disorder. Instead of jail, individuals in crisis can receive behavioral therapies, counseling, medication and other recovery services to help them recover. This not only benefits the person in crisis, but also all of society because it costs more to incarcerate someone with a mental health disorder in prison than it does to treat them in an appropriate mental health recovery program.
