COEUR d'ALENE - Eleven members of Kootenai County law enforcement agencies completed a Crisis Intervention Team training on Friday, which will enable them to better approach calls and incidents involving mentally ill people.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness established Crisis Intervention Team training in 1988, with the goal of equipping law enforcement personnel with the tools needed to interact with people experiencing psychiatric crises. Since North Idaho agencies began sending employees to the week-long training, more than 100 participants have graduated.

"Mental illnesses are biological diseases, but when a situation arises with a mentally ill person, it isn't certified EMT professionals that are the first to respond," said Ann Wimberly, NAMI CIT coordinator. "The law enforcement officers, who are normally the first to respond, do not receive this type of training at the academy. So this training supplements what they get there."

According to a Crisis Intervention Team fact sheet provided by Wimberly, the training teaches officers to "recognize the signs of psychiatric distress and how to de-escalate a crisis - avoiding officer injuries, consumer deaths and tragedy for the community."

"In addition, CIT officers learn how to link people with appropriate treatment, which has a positive impact on fostering recovery and recidivism," the fact sheet states.

The training began Monday at Kootenai Health before moving on to Bonner County for the remainder of the week. Participants were trained by a variety of professionals including mental health providers, Dawn Gray from the Veterans' Recovery Program at the Spokane VA, and Kootenai County Mental Health Court Judge John Mitchell.

Jennifer Sullivan, an Idaho State Police dispatcher for the Kootenai County area, attended the training and told The Press shortly after her graduation that the program was "fantastic."

"It opened my mind to something I didn't know much about," Sullivan said. "I got a better understanding of how to deal with a mentally ill subject on the phone, as well as the proper questions to ask so that my officers are prepared when they get on the scene."

Sullivan was joined at training by two Kootenai County dispatchers, five county juvenile probation officers, two adult misdemeanor probation officer and a member of the county's juvenile diversion team. Graduates of the program received 40 hours of training credits from Idaho Peace Officers Standards and Training.