Crisis Intervention Team Mental Health Response

The Cranston Police Department is requesting funds to further implement our Crisis Intervention Team within the community to address Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Quality of Life crises in the City of Cranston. This proposal aims to create a full-time role for their Crisis Intervention Team within the City of Cranston. The proposal will create a full-time role for the police department’s crisis intervention officers and associated clinicians, called Crisis Intervention Teams. Their primary activities will be to proactively address mental health and substance abuse issues within the City of Cranston as they occur in real-time. These CIT Teams will be dispatched to calls for service involving mental health or substance abuse issues so they can be properly addressed. The Team will follow up with subjects involved in these calls to ensure they are provided with the proper treatment. The expected outcomes of this grant will be increased quality of life for the City of Cranston’s citizens and reduced substance abuse and mental health calls for service. This would occur by the team proactively addressing mental health and substance abuse issues quickly and efficiently before they cause a deeper and more severe problem. This reduction in calls for service will reduce the strain on police and fire first responders. The service area for this grant will be any persons within the City of Cranston. The intended beneficiaries of this grant are persons within the City of Cranston having any mental health or substance abuse crisis and their families and friends that their situation may impact. Partnering entities for this proposal include social workers and clinicians employed by Gateway Mental Health and the Comprehensive Community Action Program. These entities will assist in providing mental health services as needed.