Local Representatives Attend National CIT Conference

Southwest Louisiana CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) representatives attended the National CIT Conference in Atlanta last month.  This was the third annual national gathering of law enforcement officers, mental health professionals, and NAMI (National Association of Mental Illness) advocates from around the country.  The purpose of the conference is to highlight the successes of CIT and to share learning experiences between groups across the country.  The CIT program in SWLA was developed by the Lake Charles Police Department, the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office, and McNeese State University’s Psychology Department, in partnership with the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, to train law enforcement in the behaviors and actions of the mentally ill to ensure that proper enforcement decisions are made.

SWLA CIT attendees at the national conference were Lt. David Anders and Kevin Hooper from the Lake Charles Police Department; Deputies Darek Ardoin, Mary Peirottie, John Casarez, Kim Sittig and Mark Vartuli from the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Department; Mary Hebert, RN, Assistant Director of ER Nursing at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital (LCMH); Misty Kelly, Director of LCMH’s Psychiatric Unit; Dick Tanous with Resource Management Services; and Mickey Shannon, Executive Director of Samaritan Counseling Center.  Anders, Tanous and Shannon were also presenters at the conference.  The title of their workshop was “CIT and the Media: a Mental Connection.”