The forty hour training is a critical component of CIT. The training consists of classroom lectures, field visits, and role plays where officers practice de-escalation skills. The individual blocks of training are prepared by skilled mental health professionals who have a particular area of expertise. As well, site visits to community resources that support the mentally ill and conversations with consumers and family members at the field visits and during the consumer and family panels greatly expand learning opportunities. The training concludes with several hours of role plays in which mental health professionals play the role of consumers in crisis and the CIT officers-in-training practice de-escalation skills.

Greg Casstevens, Director of Safety and Security at Northern Hospital, commented “on the last day we wore headsets to simulate a schizophrenic patient hearing voices and we were required to complete several tasks while wearing the headsets. I definitely have a different perspective of mental illness.”

The mental health partners credited with the planning of this training were: National Alliance for Mental Illness, The Mental Health Association of Forsyth County, CenterPoint Human Services, CrossRoads Behavioral Health, Forsyth Medical Center/Novant Health, Wake

Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and the NC Division of Mental Health, Developmentally Disabled, and Substance Abuse.