For 40 hours last week, 21 people representing law enforcement, first responders and those involved in social service to the community, spent their time learning how to handle situations that have the potential to turn deadly. A ceremony marking the completion of the program was held at the Trade and Transit Center II.

Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) is a week-long program that focuses primarily on addressing a crisis in the community, said Barbara Vanaskie, CIT coordinator for Lycoming-Clinton counties.

The training teaches “first responders to come to any type of mental health or substance use crisis and be able to de-escalate the situation and get the person the resources and appropriate services that they need and to also help keep the community safe,” Vanaskie said.

In his opening remarks to the groups of graduates, Williamsport Mayor Derek Slaughter noted an incident that had unfolded earlier in the day at a local high school.

“De-escalation-working with the families and the students so that they can stay calm in high stress situations is very, very difficult to do which we saw obviously today,” Slaughter said.

The training, which follows the Memphis Model of crisis intervention, is an evidence-based program in verbal de-escalation. The class included those from the Williamsport Bureau of Police, Lycoming County Adult and Juvenile Probation offices, the Lycoming-Clinton Mental Health forensics case managers, which is through the Joinder Board, as well as crisis intervention workers from the Center for Community Resources and other community agency members.

Those included two co-responders who will be responding to community-based crises with police departments, which is a program in the county that is just being rolled out.

“De-escalation is really using verbal and non-verbal communication skills to speak to an individual in a crisis and get them the services that they need,” Vanaskie said.

The participants spent last week attending presentations which were from one to two hours long which were followed by skill building training.

“We have scenarios that we’ve collected over the last five years that have been responded to by first responders in the county so that we can then practice these de-escalation skills,” Vanaskie said.

In addition to the education component and the practice, community agencies sent representatives to talk to the group about what resources that are available for the people they encounter.

The feedback from past training sessions has been positive.

“We have had community members that are working in various realms-healthcare, social services and crisis intervention-that have had CIT certified officers respond, that have said that the training is definitely working,” Vanaskie said.

“They’ve seen a difference in how people are responding once they start the de-escalation process and have the language and skills to be able to defuse that situation,” she added.

Shantay Hall-Strachon, who is the Wise Options Medical Advocate & Prevention Educator at the YWCA Northcentral PA, participated in the training and feels that it will help her in her work in multiple ways.

“First and foremost, the YWCA is the only organization here in Lycoming County that helps people that are seeking safety and security from domestic violence, sexual assault and other crimes like human trafficking. But we also do other things like homelessness and food and clothing,” she said.

“For this typical training, I think it was helpful, because I got to meet so many other organizations that are part of the whole community that we typically don’t get to see. We might call first responders, but we really don’t know how well or what they may do after they leave. So for all of us to have this one training to be connected on such a unilateral basis, I think it’ll be helpful, because we’ll kind of know how they will respond to someone that might be in crisis dealing with a mental health, which is really important in our area,” she said.

She sees the benefit of the organizations coming together for training that don’t typically work together.

“But we need to be together, you know, from the Williamsport police department to probation, in case someone’s coming in for a crisis at the front line. They may walk on my doorstep. I might contact crisis. Crisis might get them to the hospital. They’ll reach out to West Branch (Drug and Alcohol Abuse Commission). West Branch should reach out,” she said.

“Then if it even takes a different turn and it becomes a little criminal, we still now have people at the jail that are forensic caseworkers, and at the prison with probation officers, judges and things like that. So this was like an interconnected network that we never get to see together, but now we know we’re all on the same team, and we can actually brainstorm,” she said.