Current Work: Goals for Year Four — 2007

  • Offer two sessions of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) — a 40-hour training in mental health crisis intervention for law enforcement — to train 48 more local law officers.

    Better informed decisions by law enforcement reduce demands on the medical centers’ emergency departments and inpatient psychiatric services. Many times these services are not reimbursed at full cost.

    Local officers who already are trained in CIT are enthusiastic about increasing the number of trained officers. (They include La Crosse Sheriff’s deputies, La Crosse, West Salem, and Campbell police officers, and La Crosse County jailers.) Mental health related agencies in our community are eager to have law enforcement learn more about what they have to offer in crisis situations and follow-up services. Presenters volunteered at least 100 hours of their time for this effort – and all said they would like to do it again.

    After our first CIT training, October 9-13, 2006, the director of training for the La Crosse Police Department wrote:

    Thank you for your extraordinary efforts to bring this training to our department. We now have 1/10 of our department trained in these valuable, no priceless communication skills.

    Thanks for your dedication. Sincerely, Lt. Dan Marcou

    The “priceless communication skills” he refers to have resulted in increased safety for officers as well as for the people they are helping. These valuable skills and knowledge of services in the community have reduced the number of involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations (also known as Chapter 51s, per the Wisconsin state code of law), which might not be the best treatment for each and every case, and can be costly for the individual, for the medical centers, and for taxpayers.

  • Produce “Mental Health @ Work” multi-media presentation.

    When 20–25% of the workforce is affected by mental health issues directly or through a family member; 66% of workers who have mental health issues have not sought treatment; and 72% of people with mental illness are already working, this educational presentation will offer helpful strategies for employers to increase productivity, retention, motivation and morale; to reduce absenteeism; and to contain healthcare costs. It will be available to any and all employers as an excellent way to start addressing mental health issues in the workplace.

  • Host quarterly Workplace Exchange Meetings for any and all employers and benefits managers who are interested in exchanging information and discussing challenges and progress about mental health issues in the workplace.

  • Update “Mental Health & Stigma” presentation.

    This introduction to mental health, mental illnesses, and the stigma which often prevents people from seeking treatment — even from realizing they have an illness that can be treated — also offers simple ways to address and eliminate stigma. The original version, produced in 2004, was shown to 70 groups during 2005 and 2006, ranging from service clubs to university classes and church groups. We ask each audience to complete a simple written survey before and after the presentation. The survey results show a change in attitude about mental illness due to knowledge gained from the presentation.

  • Continue to host quarterly Information Exchange Meetings for agencies/organizations which provide mental health services. The updates from and communication among these groups lead to better access to mental health services.

  • Continue to work toward a mentally healthy community by eradicating stigma, achieving insurance parity, and improving the availability of services.

Also see our history.