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CIT bracelets help ease encounters between police, mental health sufferers

Albany Herald - 7/7/2022

Jul. 6—ALBANY — As a fashion statement they're not much. But these rubber bracelets could make a big difference with police officers interacting with individuals suffering from mental illness and alter the results of an encounter from a trip to jail to referral to treatment.

The Change Center, a substance abuse recovery center in downtown Albany, and other facilities related to Aspire Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Services of Albany distribute the bracelets to those who have mental health issues.

The bracelets, which have CIT on one side and Mental Health Alert on the other, can let police know how to better handle a situation when they encounter someone who is wearing one. CIT stands for Critical Intervention Training, and the Change Center is one of the stops for officers undergoing the five-day course in Albany.

Officers in the course are trained to recognize signs of mental illness and to try to de-escalate a situation involving an individual who is exhibiting symptoms.

"It lets the officer know they are dealing with someone with a mental health issue, and it may be a better idea to take them to Aspire rather than to jail," Change Center Outreach Coordinator Daniel Fleuren said. "We have these bracelets here, and we give them out to those who need them."

The bracelets also alert an officer who has not had the training to call for a trained officer who can better deal with the situation.

"If we can get them away from a criminal justice (case) and get them into crisis intervention, that'd be great," Fleuren said.

Being located in downtown is a plus for the bracelet distribution effort.

"We are located in an area where there is a lot of foot traffic from those affected by mental health issues," Fleuren siad. "Because we work with those people, we thought it would be a great idea to have the bracelets here."

Steering individuals away from the jail would have several benefits, Dougherty County Sheriff's Office Col. Jon Ostrander, who manages jail operations, said.

There were about 660 jail inmates incarcerated on Wednesday, and Ostrander estimated about 35 percent of those have some type of mental health issue.

The facility has one part-time psychiatrist who is on-site four hours each week for clinical time, which is inadequate for the need.

"No. 1, our detention staff are not trained to treat mental illness," he said. "When we have someone in jail with mental health issues, it is very difficult for us. While we do have treatment personnel on staff, it's difficult to treat 250 people in this setting."

On the other side of the coin, jail is about the worst place for someone with a mental illness to be housed, the colonel said.

"If we could get the people into appropriate treatment, not only would it ease the strain on our people who are not trained, it would result in better outcomes," he said.

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