The graduates of the week-long Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Training pose for a group photo on Friday at Penn College. CIT Training is for first responders and law enforcement. The class included members of the Lycoming County and Clinton County Crisis Intervention Team. Among the 20 graduates included those from Williamsport Bureau of Police, Lycoming County Juvenile Probation, Lycoming Regional Police Department, Pennsylvania College of Technology Police Department, Center for Community Resources, River Valley Health and Dental, Clinton County Emergency Services, Goodwill Hose Co., Clinton County Probation, Lycoming County Pre-Release Center and West Branch Drug & Alcohol Abuse Commission. County Commissioner Mark Mussina was the keynote speaker at the graduation.

Twenty graduates of the Crisis Intervention Team of Lycoming and Clinton counties took home certificates Friday while wearing their dress uniforms after undergoing a weeklong course meant to improve safety on streets and in the communities through training them to respond to mental health and behavioral-related incidents.

“They are trained on verbal de-escalation skills, officer and community safety, as well as education on behavioral health, mental health and substance use disorders, and community resources,” said Barb Vanaskie, project manager at West Branch Drug and Alcohol Abuse Commission, 213 W. Fourth St.

“It really opened my eyes up,” said Pennsylvania College of Technology Police Officer Catherine Farr. For Farr, it was an opportunity to network with other practitioners specializing in law enforcement, juvenile probation and drug and alcohol abuse and prevention.

She noted it was great to hear from alumni of the training, to listen to their stories about how this training has led to many successes in their fields.

As an officer of the law, “you don’t get to hear the outcome” of recovery, shared by the various specialists, Farr said with other graduates sharing cake inside the Professional Development Center on the Penn College Campus.

The training is more than instruction, according to the Crisis Intervention Team. It is a community response to crisis intervention.

This is the first class that has been offered since early 2019, due to the pandemic, and training will continue this year with two classes offered.

Lycoming County Commissioner Mark Mussina was guest speaker. Before he spoke, he was asked why he thought such training for first responders was valuable and important.

Mussina said often certain individuals who are suffering from mental health issues do not need to be incarcerated but do need to get help.

This training provided participants with various hypothetical scenarios they might encounter, such as despondent people and those who seek to harm themselves or the public.

Not only do the police and first responders and specialists need to keep themselves safe and the public in many of these incidents but they also need to protect that individual who might harm themselves without the proper intervention.

Mussina encouraged more first responders to undergo the training.

“Lycoming County is proactive,” he said, adding it has treatment courts and a reentry program through Geo Reentry Services.

He congratulated the class and said the first responders do “unsung things to keep us safe.”