Ridgeview Crisis Intervention Team

Ridgeview is proud to be a founding member of the East Tennessee Crisis Intervention Team.

Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) is an evidence-based model which facilitates stronger alliances between mental health systems, including the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), law enforcement, and educators toward a better response to crisis needs for those who suffer from mental illness. It is a program based on fostering partnerships and has been growing nationally due to the number of benefits that the program brings to the community.

Some of these benefits include diversions from overcrowded jail situations, decreased arrests and decreased injuries to officers and to community members based on the collaborative training that enables the officers to use skills in de-escalating those who are suffering from symptoms of mental illness. Ridgeview was the coordinating agency that fostered the partnerships with the Memphis founders of CIT, and as a result of partnerships with local law enforcement agencies has successfully trained and graduated numerous classes of law enforcement personnel and other first responders. These special units of officers are specifically trained in a safe and understandable reaction and approach to mental health crisis events.

Our team was founded in 2010 and has made a difference in a number of communities with training for over 100 graduates. The East Tennessee CIT classes have included law enforcement officers from Anderson County, Clinton, Harriman, Lafollette, Morgan County, Oak Ridge, and Scott County, with plans to continue in growth and in numbers.

To learn more about how to enroll in CIT classes, please contact Jan Cagle at 865-482-1076.

Image By Randy Hanna