Resource Guide - Utah's Prevention and Action Programs

Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)

What is CIT? Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) are specially trained law enforcement officers. These officers are trained in tactics to effectively deal with a person experiencing a mental crisis, as well as every day interaction.

A CIT Officer has successfully completed state-authorized training, and passes required testing, to become certified as a Crisis Intervention Team Officer through the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health

If you have a loved one experiencing a mental health crisis, dial 911 or contact your local law enforcement agency and request a CIT-trained officer.

Let them know this is a mental health crisis.

CIT programs have been established in many communities in an effort to help officers respond effectively to people in crisis as well as to guide people with needed treatment. Today, these CIT programs are expanding throughout Utah and the nation.

To learn more about the CIT Utah Program, visit www.citutah.com

Mental Health Court

Mental Health Court is an innovative treatment approach based on the therapeutic justice model which is best known from the proven success of Drug Courts. Therapeutic justice is founded on the idea that legal rules and procedures may promote the psychological well being of the criminal justice client. The need for unique and substantive intervention in the court system was readily recognized by both the court and treatment services providers as it became readily apparent that individuals with major mental illness were significantly over represented among the segment of the population involved with the criminal justice system. Mental Health Court has a specialized court docket for defendants with serious mental illness that substitutes a problem solving model for traditional court processing. Participants are identified through specialized screening and assessments, and voluntarily participate in a judicially supervised treatment plan developed jointly by a team of court staff and mental health professionals. Mental health Courts and other post-booking diversion programs are in place in a large and growing number of communities. These court-based programs make use of a variety of alternatives to jail. However, they are only successful if inpatient and community-based mental health services and supports, including safe, affordable, and supported housing are also available.

In Salt Lake County there are currently two Mental Health Courts for adults, along with a Federal Mental Health Court and Juvenile Mental Health Court. There is also an Adult Mental Health Court in Utah County, and one Adult Mental Health Court in Cache Valley, and a Juvenile Mental Health Court in Cache and Box Elder Counties.

Jail Diversion Outreach Team (JDOT)

This team of professionals includes a social worker, case manager, nurse, peer mentors, and an APRN to serve individuals who have been unsuccessful in mental health treatment in the past, are homeless, in poverty, and have cycled through the jail. This collaborative effort between Mental Health Services, Criminal Justice Services, the County jail, housing, and NAMI has been very successful in reducing participants' jail time.

The team works out of Valley Mental Health to provide in-home services to people who have multiple incarcerations and serious mental illness. The mental health services coordinators at the jail connects those appropriate for JDOT through their discharge planning process. The team provides intensive, community-based services to a minimum of 60 criminal-justice involved persons with mental illness. Services emphasize integrated mental health and substance abuse interventions.

The jail diversion services provided in Salt Lake County through JDOT is showing impressive outcomes in keeping individuals with serious and persistent mental illness out of the jail and in the community, with the goal of helping them to be contributing members of society.

For more information contact Rebecca Minnick at Valley Mental Health. 1-801-539-7052