What is CIT or “The Memphis Model”? Is It Enough?

One in five adults in the U.S. live with a mental illness, yet the amount of mental health crisis services being offered is still severely lacking—so much so, in fact, that it has left law enforcement officers with no choice but to serve as first-responders to the majority of mental health crises. Many times, unnecessary physical force is used during those interactions, resulting in serious injury and death. CIT was developed as a response.

What is CIT?

The Crisis Intervention Team (“CIT”) program, also known as the Memphis Model, is a first-responder model of crisis intervention training and is considered a “Best Practice” model in law enforcement. CIT was developed for the welfare of individuals with mental illness and/or addictions, allowing them to access medical treatment rather than be processed through the criminal justice system. CIT seeks to reduce the risk of injury or death during police interactions involving persons with mental illness with a community-based approach, connecting law enforcement, mental health providers, hospital emergency services, and persons with mental illnesses and their families.

A 40-Hour Program

The CIT program is a 40-hour training course that centers around five themes:

1. Understanding behavioral health
2. Developing empathy
3. Navigating community resources
4. De-escalation skills
5. Practical application

This program includes basic information about mental illness, information about the local mental health system and policies, interaction with consumers and family members, verbal de-escalation training, and role-playing. It teaches officers how to de-escalate and where to navigate people in a crisis – emphasizing jail diversion and teaching officers the benefits of treatment instead of incarceration. After completing the program, CIT officers are dispatched to mental health calls or to assist officers who are not CIT qualified.

CIT is not just a training program. CIT’s goals also include building partnerships, identifying problems and creating solutions, identifying what crisis resources are available, and ensuring that those crisis resources are easily accessible to those in need.

Benefits of CIT

CIT’s benefits include:

• Reducing the number of fatal interactions and reducing the severity of injuries acquired while police officers interact with persons with mental illness
• Improving communication
• Allowing those in crisis to access mental health resources
• Increasing the safety of persons with mental illness, police officers, and the community
• Increasing jail diversion among people with mental illness
• Improving the likelihood of treatment continuity
• Increasing efficient crisis response times

Limitations of CIT

CIT’s benefits are numerous, but are they enough? Should CIT be the standard across police stations and communities nationwide?

It’s important to note that:

• Putting an officer in front of a large group, and reading 40 hours of PowerPoint presentations, is not going to have enough impact to shape internal culture.
• Mental illness stigma is a significant barrier to positive outcomes with CIT.
• Officers’ preexisting mental illness stigma may persist after CIT training, defeating the purpose of increasing preparedness to interact with persons with mental illness.
• Research regarding CIT’s success is inconsistent.
• Reviewing CIT’s effectiveness based on officer use of force, officer injury, and outcomes of the arrest of persons with mental illness, the CIT model has been dubbed as neither significantly beneficial nor significantly detrimental.

Alternatives to CIT

CIT is also known as a Police-Mental Health Collaboration (“PMHC”) program. PMHC programs strive to train officers to identify signs and symptoms of mental illness, utilize stabilization and de-escalation techniques, and increase access to mental health resources.

Besides CIT, there are four other approaches, which are:

• Co-Responder Team (a mental health crisis worker and a trained officer respond to mental health calls together).
• Mobile Crisis Team (mental health professionals available to respond to calls at the request of law enforcement officers).
• Cases Management Team (officers work with mental health professionals to develop specific solutions and reduce repeat interactions).
• Tailored Approach (an agency selects various response types from PMHC programs to create their own comprehensive program).

Is CIT Enough?

To determine whether CIT is enough, agencies need to assess their community’s needs and existing resources. Comparing their community’s needs and resources should determine which type(s) of PMHC program(s) is appropriate.