The Paint Valley Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health (ADAMH) Board has announced that 21 law enforcement officers, correction officers and first responders, who serve in the Paint Valley ADAMH board region, completed Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Training on Friday, May 5th.
The week long training was designed for law enforcement officers and first responders to react appropriately to situations involving someone with a mental illness or a developmental disability. Since its first CIT Training in 2013, a total of 127 officers or first responders have complete CIT Training.
Fayette County has four CIT officers, Highland County has 26 CIT officers, Pickaway County has 19 CIT officers, Pike County has eight CIT officers and Ross County has 65 CIT officers.
Penny Dehner, Associate Director of the Paint Valley ADAMH Board stated that “It is very important to assure that we have trained officers in our board region, not only for the safety of our officers but also for our communities. We are really excited to be continuing to make this training available and have plans to provide training next year.”
The CIT Planning Committee is comprised of mental health providers, law enforcement officers and Veterans Administration professionals that worked together to develop a local CIT training. The training is funded by The Paint Valley ADAMH Board. National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Ohio provides additional funding for presenters to assure the best training in the state would be available for our law enforcement officers.
The Paint Valley ADAMH Board would like to thank the First Presbyterian Church of Chillicothe for allowing the use of their facilities and Sun Room Catering of Frankfort, Ohio for preparing breakfast for the officers during training. They acknowledge the following businesses for their generous donation of meals: 7Miles Smokehouse, Penn Station Subs, Fire & Stone Pizzeria, Jimmy John’s Subs and Tumbleweed Restaurant.