KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — On Friday, a group of 25 law enforcement officers, first responders and medical staff graduated from training on how to intervene when a person is having a mental health crisis.
The training was provided by the McNabb Center — a nonprofit provider of mental health care in East Tennessee. The training taught them how to work on a crisis intervention team and included people from the University of Tennessee Police Department, Knoxville Police Department, Knox County Sheriff’s Office, University of Tennessee Medical Center, Knoxville Fire Department, Lenoir City Police Department, VA Police and American Medical Response.
According to a release from the McNabb Center, the participants went through 40 hours of intensive training. It helped them identify mental health resources to help people in crisis and connected officers with mental health professionals as well as community agencies, creating teams that can provide support for situations involving people in crisis.
Officers also learned de-escalation skills and experienced scenario-based training on how to respond to crises.