Better Mental Illness Outcomes through Community Collaboration: CIT

Explicit content warning

09/30/21 • 47 min

Schizophrenia: Three Moms in the Trenches

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“Collaborative partnerships between law enforcement, mental health service providers, advocates, family members, and people with lived experience.” - Amy Watson

Sound good? That’s the foundation of the CIT Model.

“I could treat people like human beings” - Amy Watson

Police Activity is very much in the news these days, and response to mental health crises is often left in their hands.

Each of us has had experience with first responders, some trained in crisis intervention and some not. CIT Training is at least part of why our sons are alive (and not incarcerated) today.

Our guest today is Amy Watson, President of CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) International, a leader in promoting safe and humane responses to those experiencing a mental health crisis. She is also a professor at Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
CIT Basic Goals:

Improve Officer and Consumer Safety
Redirect Individuals with Mental Illness from the Judicial System to the Health Care System

We Talk About:

What is the CIT(Crisis Intervention Team) program model? - and why do you personally do this work? -
What does the research tell us about CIT?
What is CIT Training - what are the goals? Why the need?
What’s the cost? Who pays?
What’s the cost of NOT getting the training?
What do officers say who have had the training? Do they get pushback from other police officers?
How can a family member advocate for getting CIT training locally?

Links:

https://www.citinternational.org/

What is CIT?

https://vimeo.com/533695447

HBO Documentary “Ernie and Joe” - https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/ernie-and-joe

Want to know more?
Join our facebook page
Our websites:
Randye Kaye
Mindy Greiling
Miriam (Mimi) Feldman

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks!

“Collaborative partnerships between law enforcement, mental health service providers, advocates, family members, and people with lived experience.” - Amy Watson

Sound good? That’s the foundation of the CIT Model.

“I could treat people like human beings” - Amy Watson

Police Activity is very much in the news these days, and response to mental health crises is often left in their hands.

Each of us has had experience with first responders, some trained in crisis intervention and some not. CIT Training is at least part of why our sons are alive (and not incarcerated) today.

Improve Officer and Consumer Safety
Redirect Individuals with Mental Illness from the Judicial System to the Health Care System

We Talk About:

What is the CIT(Crisis Intervention Team) program model? - and why do you personally do this work? -
What does the research tell us about CIT?
What is CIT Training - what are the goals? Why the need?
What’s the cost? Who pays?
What’s the cost of NOT getting the training?
What do officers say who have had the training? Do they get pushback from other police officers?
How can a family member advocate for getting CIT training locally?

Links:

https://www.citinternational.org/

What is CIT?

https://vimeo.com/533695447

HBO Documentary “Ernie and Joe” - https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/ernie-and-joe

Want to know more?
Join our facebook page
Our websites:
Randye Kaye
Mindy Greiling
Miriam (Mimi) Feldman

Previous Episode

Schizophrenia and the Family: Is There Hope Beyond Hidden Valley Road?

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks!

To end our first season with episode 25, we present the interview that started it all: Mimi and Randye interview Bob Kolker, and are joined by fellow activist/mom Laura Pogliano.
A conversation about #Schizophrenia and the Family: Is There Hope Beyond #HiddenValleyRoad? with Robert Kolker, Miriam Feldman, Randye Kaye, and Laura Pogliano.
Kolker is a journalist and nonfiction author whose first book Lost Girls was a New York Times best-seller and was recently adapted for a Netflix film. This book is Hidden Valley Road, an Oprah's Book Club selection and an instant #1 New YorkTimes best-seller about one family's struggle with mental illness.
Randye Kaye is author of Ben Behind His Voices, and creator of The Power of Kinship programs. She is also a noted voice talent, speaker and actor.
Miriam Feldman is an artist, writer, and the mother of an adult son with schizophrenia. Her book, "He Came in With It" chronicles her family's story and will be out on July 21st.
Laura Pogliano has been featured frequently in USA Today as mother & advocate for her late son Zaccaria. She is now the Maryland State Chapter Lead for SARDAA and focuses on family support and the reclassification of schizophrenia to Neurology. She is also on the Board of SARDAA.
What, if anything, has changed for families dealing with schizophrenia - and what has to happen next to improve the current situation?
We touch on:
Early Detection and Treatment
Need to fund and advance research and find a CURE
Four Pillars of Recovery
Stigma - is reducing stigma enough? (no!)
Schizophrenia as a brain condition, not a psychological issue
the sibling experience
Hidden Valley Road and the Galvin family
current disabled mental health system
need for education, NAMI Family-to-Family
...and more.

SHOW LESS

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Our websites:
Randye Kaye
Mindy Greiling
Miriam (Mimi) Feldman

Next Episode

I Am Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help! How to Help Someone Accept Treatment

Send a Text to the Moms - please include your contact info if you want a response. thanks!

If you care for someone with a diagnosed serious mental illness (SMI) , you know that it isn’t easy to help them begin, or continue, treatment.

You hear “I’m not sick! I don’t need help!”

That phrase inspired our guest to find a way, write a book, and create a movement.

Dr. Xavier Amador is a world-renowned clinical psychologist & forensic expert, and a Family caregiver of relatives with schizophrenia and bipolar. He founded NAMI’s Scientific Council, helped to launch Family-to-Family, Peer-to-Peer & In Our Own Voices, and wrote the book I AM NOT SICK I Don’t Need Help!

We talk about:

Dr. Amador’s family story: his brother Henry, and his son, with Schizophrenia
What do we do when our loved one says I am not sick, I don't need help?
Listening: without judgment, and with respect.
Anosognosia, and how to approach someone who has it
The Henry Amador Center on Anosognosia
The power of your relationship
Changes - and changes needed - in the mental health system
Takeaways from the input from families and also people with mental illness?
Diffusing Anger
3 A’s: Apologize, Acknowledge, Agree (to disagree)
Crisis Communication v. long-term communication
The LEAP method (listen, Empathise, Agree, Partner) and how families - and law enforcement - can be trained
Role-play: Addressing Covid Vaccine reluctance with relative with SMI
LAI (long-acting injectables) vs. pills every day

Quotes:

“You’re not going to make a delusion worse by listening to it and letting your loved one know that you’ve heard him and that you understand his anger, you understand his fear.” - Dr. Amador

My brother never believed he was mentally ill...but he stayed in treatment for the rest of his life” - Dr. Amador

Links:

Henry Amador Center on Anosognosia: https://hacenter.org/home

Book: I Am Not Sick! I Don’t Need Help: 20th Anniversary Edition: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0985206705/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0

Who Are the 3 Moms?

Randye Kaye -Broadcaster, Actress, Voice Talent, Speaker, and Author (“Ben Behind his Voices”)

Miriam Feldman – Artist, Mom, Author “He Came in With It”

Mindy Greiling – member of the Minnesota House of Representatives for twenty years. Activist, Legislator, Author (“Fix What You Can“)

Want to know more?
Join our facebook page
Our websites:
Randye Kaye
Mindy Greiling
Miriam (Mimi) Feldman