Story courtesy of The Moultrie Observer
MOULTRIE — Chief Frank N. Lang Sr. of the Moultrie Police Department recently returned from a trip to the west African nation of Liberia. His trip, in collaboration with the Carter Center Liberia Mental Health Program, sought to teach local law enforcement officers some of the techniques used by the Moultrie Police Department to help people in a mental health crisis get the help they need.
The Carter Center Mental Health Program invited the Liberian National Police and the National Police Training Academy to a three-day workshop to evaluate the possibility of adapting the Moultrie Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model for Liberia. In addition to Lang, with support from the Liberia-based Carter Center staff, the Center and American mental health team members included Pat Strode from the Georgia affiliate of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI); Michael Compton, a psychiatrist and research expert on CIT from George Washington University; Brandon Kohrt, a psychiatrist from the Duke Global Health Institute; and Elise Blasingame, an intern with The Carter Center in Liberia.
Fourteen police officers, including two corrections officers from different parts of Liberia, were recruited to participate along with 17 Carter Center-trained local mental health clinicians.
Based on research on stigma in Liberia, led by Kohrt, the Carter Center Mental Health Liberia project sought to prepare law enforcement personnel to better respond to individuals with mental illness who come in contact with the law. Critical to the training is the collaboration between law enforcement and mental health personnel. Officers participating in the program said that the workshop had a powerful impact on how they think about persons living with mental illness.
One patrol officer reported, “I used to think that witchcraft made people mentally ill. Now I know that’s not true.” Another officer reported, “I thought crazy people were just crazy, but they are our brothers and sisters.” An officer participating in the program said, “I never even knew that mental health clinicians existed in Liberia.” His fellow officers echoed his observation and all were happy to learn that they could now collaborate with the clinicians. Clinicians and law enforcement officers developed plans to communicate with one another for collaborative care for persons living with mental illness.
Lang, the only law enforcement practitioner on the trip, was able to provide his experience in utilizing CIT with the Moultrie Police Department.
“Mental health issues are a concern for more than just Moultrie; it is a global problem,” he said.
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