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On Thursday, August 13, 2020 there was a panel in the Chamber of the House of Representatives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania made up of three panelists who testified about law enforcement and their interactions with people who have mental illness. Nicole Dosser was one of the panelist. She is the Advocacy Director for the state of Pennsylvania division of the National Alliance of Mental Illness, also known as NAMI. NAMI is the largest grassroots mental health organization in the United States. It is dedicated to improving the lives of millions of its members affected by mental illness. There are thirty-one affiliations in Pennsylvania with over one thousand members who receive support, education, and advocacy. The members of NAMI comprise of primarily people with mental illness, their family members, mental health professionals, and advocates.

As a grassroots mental health advocacy organization, they know the realities of stigma, prejudices, discrimination against people who have mental health conditions. All should be treated with dignity and respect. In addition, the people deserve to have excellent quality and affordable healthcare.

For far too long, law enforcement has mistreated people who are experiencing the symptoms of mental illness, which leads to devastating outcomes. Law enforcement is ill equipped to properly handle these emergencies. NAMI has long supported CIT as a model which inspires communities and law enforcement to help make crisis responses safer, more compassionate, and focused on contacting people to care.

In the late 1980’s there was a tragic killing of a young man in Tennessee by the police. As a result, the community and a NAMI affiliate sought out to develop a community response that was more intelligent, understandable, and most importantly a safer method to use when a police officer encounters a person who has mental illness.

In 1988 NAMI used seed money to develop CIT’s in Pennsylvania. Currently, there are thirty-five organizations. Among them, are CIT’s in Northeast PA. as well as in Susquehanna, Wyoming, and Wayne counties. The programs have saved police departments, hospitals, and other community institutions millions upon millions of dollars. Therefore, mental health intervention programs are cost effective for the communities they serve.

In 2019 a county in Northeast PA. received twenty-four thousand calls made to 911. Out of that number, the police were requested only two hundred and fifty times. CIT programs are being developed in San Francisco California; Albuquerque, New Mexico; New York, New York; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Atlanta, Georgia.

Many African Americans with mental illness are still dying at the hands of law enforcement. Unarmed African Americans with mental illness are killed at a rate five times that of their unarmed white counterparts. The national call for racial justice has exposed the numerous deadly encounters between law enforcement and people who are mentally ill. NAMI believes that we must focus on several areas of community mental health; (1) there must be comprehensive and culturally competent crisis care, (2) impatient care and outpatient care options must be very accessible for those who need it, (3) we must invest in support and services that help people stay well and, (4) we must have comprehensive care made available to people based on well informed principles that are known to all.

Signed: Renee D. Warring, founder of Uniquely and Wonderfully Made Ministries