Law enforcement officers are partnering with medical and mental health professionals to better serve citizens suffering from mental health issues and help get them the treatment they need.
That new partnership, known as the Three Rivers Crisis Intervention Team Council (C.I.T), covers seven counties -- Butler, Carter, Ripley, Wayne, Reynolds, Dunklin and Pemiscot, and officers from those counties are becoming C.I.T. certified.
Council members are from such agencies as the Poplar Bluff Police Department, Carter County Sheriff's Department, Department of Veterans Affairs, Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center, Butler County Juvenile Office, Probation & Parole, FCC Behavioral Health and Southeast Missouri Behavioral Health.
"In our crisis intervention training, we want law enforcement, and all our community partners, to come together and discuss issues that we all have and really try to find way to identify things that are working and things that might need improving to help us work better," explained Eric Snipes, community mental health liaison at FCC Behavioral Health.
"It's a population that we are all dealing with on some levels," but law enforcement, Snipes said, are usually the first contact for someone with mental health issues.
Poplar Bluff Police Capt. David Sutton agreed.
"No matter what, we are going to be the first ones to deal with (the person); we need to know what assets are available to us," Sutton said.
As the mental health liaison, Snipes said, he works with law enforcement and probate courts regarding those with mental health issues.
"The ultimate goal is to get them into the treatment they need," Snipes said. "The law enforcement I work with, if someone really needs helps, the last thing they want to honestly do is lock them up."
By coming together as a council, "we can put all our heads together and decide what's the best option for individuals with mental health issues," Snipes said.
Deciding on the best plan of action to get the person help, according to Snipes, is "'what the C.I.T. is for."
One of the issues raised and discussed at length at a recent council meeting was where to take a veteran in crisis -- to the VA hospital or Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center.
VA personnel said the veteran could be brought to the VA or taken to the nearest mental health facility, but VA has no lock-down capabilities, so the veteran probably will end at the private hospital.
Poplar Bluff Regional personnel "told us to give them the affidavit versus the whole application" for commitment because if the hospital is "full, (staff) can get that person where they need to be," Snipes said.
Getting answers from mental health professionals, according to Poplar Bluff deputy chief Donnie Trout, is one of the "great things about the council coming together.
" ... You have the right participants there who can answer questions."
Without the council, it would be "our best guess at the moment as to what to do," Snipes said. "The ending to that is not always the best, but when we know what the best plan of action is, I think it is better for us.
"I think it is better for the people we are trying to help. It makes the system work a lot smoother."
Law enforcement, Snipes said, used to spend "five, six, seven, eight hours with somebody.
"With the C.I.T., we can come together and discuss things that can speed up that process, and, in turn, can get (the person) into treatment faster."
Trout agreed.
"I'm excited about it; spending six hours up at the hospital (with an offender), that is not happening as much any more," Trout said.
There still are some isolated cases where "we've spent longer than we would have liked to have spent, upwards of 14 hours, but, for the most part, those are isolated."
Before, Snipes said, it was expected that an officer would spend a long time with someone, but now the C.I.T. is "working to make that (process) more seamless."
By meeting as a council, Trout said, there also is a greater understanding of the 96-hour commitment.
"All policeman thought a 96-hour commitment was for 96 hours," Trout explained. "We couldn't understand, when we took them to the hospital, that they had to do a medical exam before they could be committed."
The person, Trout said, has to be medically cleared to see if there is some underlying medical issue causing his or her actions.
"We understand that now," Trout said. "The 96-hour commitment is for up to 96 hours.
"If the psychiatrist or psychologist decides they are fine be released, he can do that after 12, even two hours."
If law enforcement encounters someone with mental health issues, "they can contact us at FCC Behavioral Health," anytime, even after hours, said Snipes.
The council, C.I.T. officials said, brings together those who "can make decisions" and has led to the exchanging of numbers, so everyone knows who to contact when an issue arises.
"When you know someone, it's hard not to reach out and solve the problem," said police Lt. Darron Moore.
Another component of the council is crisis intervention training, something the local council hopes to offer in October, Snipes said.
The training for law enforcement, he said, is 40 hours, so "they can better deal with, identify and be able to work with folks who have some mental health issues."
"Eventually, we'll do the training right here in Poplar Bluff and take a tour of the hospital, FCC Behavioral Health and SEMO Behavioral Health," Snipes said. "We'll take tours of the facilities that we utilize and come together and train our officers on the protocols" here versus those in the St. Louis, Mo., or Farmington, Mo., areas.
Carter County Sheriff Rick Stephens feels the training can be beneficial to any officer and "should be mandatory as far as I'm concerned."
Establishing what Stephens described as a good training curriculum in this area is one of the main objectives of the council, "so we can train officers in not only how to deal with people in crisis, but also the available resources to our officers."
Stephens said he is "very excited" about the council and believes it is "going to be a definite benefit to our area and our community, making our law enforcement in the area more efficient."