The Paint Valley Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health (ADAMH) Board has announced that 21 law enforcement officers, correction officers and first responders, who serve in the Paint Valley ADAMH board region, completed Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Training on Friday, May 5.

The weeklong (40-hour) training was designed for law enforcement officers and first responders to react appropriately to situations involving someone with a mental illness or a developmental disability.

Since the first CIT Training in 2013, a total of 127 officers or first responders have completee CIT Training. Fayette County has four CIT officers, Highland County has 26 CIT officers, Pickaway County has 19 CIT officers, Pike County has eight CIT officers and Ross County has 65 CIT officers.

Penny Dehner, associate director of the Paint Valley ADAMH Board stated that, “It is very important to assure that we have trained officers in our board region, not only for the safety of our officers, but also for our communities. We are really excited to be continuing to make this training available and have plans to provide training next year.”

The CIT Planning Committee is comprised of mental health providers, law enforcement officers and Veterans Administration professionals that worked together to develop a local CIT Training. This training is funded by The Paint Valley ADAMH Board. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Ohio provides additional funding for presenters to assure the best training in the state would be available for area law enforcement officers.

The Paint Valley ADAMH Board would like to thank the First Presbyterian Church of Chillicothe for allowing the use of its facilities and Sun Room Catering of Frankfort for preparing breakfast for the officers during this week of training. It would like to acknowledge the following businesses for their donations of meals for the officers’ lunch: 7Miles Smokehouse, Penn Station Subs, Fire & Stone Pizzeria, Jimmy John’s Subs and Tumbleweed Restaurant.

The Paint Valley ADAMH Board was created in 1967 to ensure the availability of community-based alcohol, drug addiction and mental health services for the residents of Fayette, Highland, Pickaway, Pike and Ross counties.

For more information, call the Paint Valley ADAMH Board at 740-773-2283.

Submitted by Melinda Sheets, public affairs coordinator, Paint Valley ADAMH Board.