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Supporting Schools and Communities in Breaking the Prison Pipeline:
A Guide to Emerging and Promising Crisis Intervention Programs for Youth
Dana Markey, Program Coordinator, NAMI Child and Adolescent Action Center
Laura Usher, Coordinator, NAMI Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Resource Center
Darcy Gruttadaro, Director, NAMI Child and Adolescent Action Center
Ron Honberg, Director, NAMI Policy and Legal Affairs
Acknowledgments
NAMI deeply appreciates the support of the Annie E. Casey Foundation for this project. We acknowledge that the information, opinions, and commentary in this guide are those of NAMI, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Casey Foundation. To learn more about their work, visit www.aecf.org. We also wish to express our appreciation to the many individuals who are leading this field, and who shared their time and expertise with us, including: Keri Fitzpatrick, Sergeant Jon Van‐ Zandt, Carol Peters, Terri Mabrito, Lieutenant Jeffry Murphy, Officer Kurt Gawrisch, Stacie Golden, Oscar Morgan, Mo Canady, among others. We also appreciate the assistance of Jeny Beausoliel for copy editing this guide.
Introduction
This resource is designed to introduce children’s mental health advocates and other stakeholders to models and practices that effectively respond to youth in psychiatric crisis in schools and communities. Also included are practical action steps and strategies to guide advocacy leaders and other stakeholders in promoting and implementing youth‐focused crisis intervention programs in their states and communities. An alarming number of youth with serious mental health treatment needs continue to enter the juvenile justice system. This happens for a variety of reasons, including a lack of psychiatric crisis intervention services in schools and communities. Many schools have proven to be a pipeline into the juvenile justice system with school personnel contacting law enforcement when students engage in disruptive behaviors, including cases involving a psychiatric crisis. A number of communities are focusing on developing crisis intervention programs for youth. These programs are designed for both community and school settings. This paper focuses on the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model, a dynamic collaboration of law enforcement and community agencies and organizations committed to ensuring that individuals with mental illness are referred to appropriate mental health services and supports rather than thrust into the criminal justice system. This model has been successfully used with adults for decades in states and communities across the country, with outstanding results. A more detailed description of the CIT model is provided on page 9. As a result of the extraordinary success of adult CIT, innovative states and communities are working to adapt CIT to effectively respond to youth in crisis in communities and in schools. CIT programs that work in schools are most important since youth spend most of their day there.
Communities adapting adult CIT and developing crisis intervention programs for youth include:
♦ Denver, which has implemented Children in Crisis (CIC);
♦ San Antonio, which developed and piloted Children’s Crisis Intervention Training (CCIT)
♦ Chicago, which is currently developing CIT for Youth.
For this paper, NAMI has used these model programs as case studies. These programs are relatively new and are in the development phase, so they may change slightly as they are rolled out. NAMI identified and interviewed program developers, law enforcement personnel, and school personnel across the country involved with these cutting edge programs, including the following:
♦ Keri Fitzpatrick, Manager, Colorado Crisis 5 Intervention Teams, managing the Children
in Crisis program in Denver;1
♦ Sergeant Jon VanZandt, Adam County’s Sheriff’s Office, implementing the Children in Crisis program in schools in Denver;2
♦ Carol Peters, Principal, Clear Lake Middle School, embracing crisis intervention programs
in schools in Denver;3
♦ Terri Mabrito, Youth Diversion Facilitator, The Center for Health Care Services, implementing
Children’s Crisis Intervention Training in San Antonio;4 and
♦ Lieutenant Jeffry Murphy, CIT Coordinator, Chicago Police Department, developing CIT
for Youth in Chicago.5
NAMI also interviewed others involved with law enforcement training who provided additional
insight on crisis intervention programs for youth, including the following:
♦ Stacie Golden, Training Specialist, Idaho Departmen of Health and Welfare, participated in the development and implementation of a training video and training program for law enforcement personnel in Idaho;6
♦ Oscar Morgan, Ph.D., Technical Assistance Coordinator, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, participated in the development and implementation of a training video and training program for law enforcement personnel in Idaho;7 and
♦ Mo Canady, Training Director, National Association of School Resource Officers, discussed
the role of school resource officers in crisis intervention programs for youth.8
