πηγή: In Process Newsletter
Crisis Intervention with the Portland Police
by Julie Diamond
Julie Diamond and Liesbeth Gerritsen received a medal of commendation, together with other members of the Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) team for their work developing a new training for Portland Police on responding to people with mental health crises.
Julie and Liesbeth worked on a team led by Lieutenant Sara Westbrooke, who was assigned to create a new training by Police Chief Rosie Sizer in the wake of the tragic death in custody of James Chasse last year. Chasse was a schizophrenic man whom police officers chased and detained by force, believing was a threat to safety. Following that incident, Chief Sizer mandated mandatory CIT training for all officers. Until Chasse’s death, the training had been voluntary, but in its aftermath, the community called for more education for the police in responding to mental health crises.
The challenge of creating a mandatory training for police officers in a highly charged political climate is described in an interview with Julie conducted by Kate Jobe and Joe Goodbread. The interview is available through Process Work Live, and is one of Kate Jobe’s podcasts exploring new applications and developments in Process Work: www.katejobe.com/podcast. A fuller story about the new mandatory training program can be found at www.portlandonline.com and an interview with the team leader, Lieutenant Sara Westbrooke is at http://www.streetroots.org