On the Job 

In the tri-county area of Gallia, Jackson and Meigs, the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) has had to be creative to meet the needs of the community.

Abbey Russell, manager of forensic programs at Woodland Centers – a private provider of behavioral services for southeastern Ohio -- serves as a co-coordinator for the Gallia-Meigs-Jackson Crisis Intervention Team with Maj. Scott Trussell of the Meigs County Sheriff’s Office.

The team – made up of Russell, Trussell, Gallia County Sheriff Joseph R. Browning; Capt. Donnie Willis of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office; Robin Harris of the ADAMHS board; and Sabrina Morris of Hopewell Health Centers, a provider of community mental-health services in Jackson – plans two, 40-hour CIT training events a year to try to fit officers’ schedules. The events in the spring and fall are rotated among the three counties.

“We don’t have a lot of resources, so the presenters are volunteers,” Russell said. “We look for places that will allow us to use facilities for free.”

The trainings cover a range of topics including mental illness in society, developmental disabilities, drug addiction, suicide prevention and post-traumatic stress.

At the Meigs County Sheriff’s Office, everybody has completed the course. At the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, about 60 percent have received the training. About half of the staff are trained at the Middleport Police Department and the Gallia County Sheriff’s Office. At the Gallipolis Police Department, 30 to 40 percent are trained.

Trussell, who has been with Meigs for more than 28 years, said before the CIT, mental-health call subjects were picked up and taken to the psychiatric hospital in Athens.

Today, an officer responds and, using CIT training, de-escalates the situation and talks to the person. Typically, the officer can get the individual to submit to voluntary treatment at Woodland Centers, which is closer than the psychiatric hospital, less expensive to the community and more flexible because it offers outpatient treatment.

“We used to have 30 admissions a year to Athens Behavioral Health, now we are down to about two a year.”