I’m not built for this, forgive me if I’m top-notch advice I could give must be to step out of your comfort zone earlier. I made it through as is I enjoyed the peace of early morning. Team Two is a full day training curriculum designed to foster collaboration between law enforcement and mobile mental health cr workers when responding to emergency mental health crises.
Accordingly the idea for the training was the brainchild of our very own Executive Director, Mary Moulton, while she did not choose the name.
In the home, at school or work, or in public, Mental health crises can arise anywhere.
Wherever police are called upon to respond, it’s imperative they respond with all the ols necessary to effectively de escalate the situation. Recognizing that not all mental health Designated Agencies across the state experienced a perfect working relationship with their law enforcement partners, now this initial work group created a scenario based training. Mary relied on Washington County Mental Health Service’s own mobile emergency cr team’s positive relationship with its law enforcement partners as a model. Therefore this kind of training helps to reinforce the report of strength in partnership to develop p possible response to an emergency cr situation. Anyways, the agenda includes information on the relevant law, local resources, a panel of people with lived experience in mental health cr, and three emergency cr scenarios on the basis of real life cases. Participants have expressed gratitude for this training type that brings first responders gether in one room -sometimes for the first time -to learn about how any agency responds to a mental health emergency cr.
To provide better possible response to a person in cr, these first responders figure out how to better work gether to not only By the way, the collaboration piece that this training provides is critical. Notice, everyone comes away learning something new about mental health cr response. Then again,, That’s a fact, it’s very important that we train together, work together, and optimize the probability of a safe outcome, These situations can hold an element of risk. Mary states, We have achieved success if the people receiving the response believe they are approached with caring and respect. Actually, Team Two and its collaborative partners are well on their way, while the initial goal of training all first responders has yet to be achieved. VT Department of Mental Health has committed to funding the Team Two Program for another year. VT Department of Public Safety has committed to providing additional funding with intention to include dispatchers to the audience who will receive the training.
Plans are under way to also include Developmental Service emergency cr providers and emergency department staff. Accordingly the completed surveys, from the first five trainings, reveal just how needed this training type is. In May, 2013, under former DMH Assistant Attorney General Kristin Chandler’s oversight, local cr workers and law enforcement participated in ‘trainthetrainer’ trainings in four regional venues around the State. Therefore a pilot training after that, ok place in November, 2012, for executives -Executive Directors, Program Managers, Chiefs and Sheriffs and the upper management of the Vermont State Police. Now look, the expectation was that these trainers could therefore come gether to train their peers in regional trainings. Then again, this story affected a subsequent change in state policy that now requires an assessment upon transport to determine whether a person can be transported without restraints. The most powerful moments of that day occurred in the course of the panel of stories when a mother ld the story of seeking carried on being placed in handcuffs and taken involuntarily to the hospital after sitting calmly for hours.
From the evaluations taken from this training, a steering committee created what actually is now the Team Two curriculum.
Initial goals of the Steering Committee included training all emergency first responders in the Team Two curriculum.
They chose the Team Two label to emphasize the collaborative approach in responding to mental health crises. While Aging and Independent Living, the VT Department of Health, National Alliance on Mental Health, the Criminal Justice Training Academy and consumers to come to the table and devise a training that should explore the collaborative process, when Mary was serving as the Deputy Commissioner at the VT Department of Mental Health, back in 2012 she brought gether representatives from DMH, VT State Police, VT Chiefs and Sheriffs, Designated Mental Health Agencies, Emergency Service Directors, VT Department on Disabilities.
Currently, 28 law enforcement and mental health cr workers train their peers in the Team Two curriculum in five regions around the state.
We are not paying people from our response groups to be trainers, We are not paying people to come to the table.
Basically they come as long as Kristin delivers a curriculum that is educational and challenging, They come to the table with good will and the desire to build an informed, safe response to people in our communities who experience a mental health cr. Bennington and a return to South Burlington are scheduled for April and May. Usually, kristin’s knowledge of the law and her natural ability to connect with law enforcement officers and emergency responders is what makes this statewide training work.