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Crisis Intervention Officials looking to Partner with school district

Posted: Feb 11, 2013 6:22 PM by MTN News
Updated: Feb 11, 2013 6:23 PM

Crisis Intervention Training is going on 6 years in Gallatin County and on Monday, the 6th Academy began training.

Crisis Intervention Teams are trained to identify situations to avert crisis, help de-escalate a crisis and direct mentally ill to appropriate care.

Under law, Crisis Intervention Professionals can only assist adults with mental illness by requiring care. With more attention on youth and mental health, Crisis Intervention Professionals in Gallatin County are interested in finding a way to treat mentally ill juveniles under the parameters of the current law.

"Most communities don't have a program equivalent for the juvenile aspect of it. Here in Bozeman, we hope to strike some type of partnership so that we can take kids work with them in a position that's a mental health issue rather than place them in custody somewhere," said Officer Trent Schumacher.

Recently, the Bozeman School District partnered with Youth Dynamics, a treatment facility for youth with an SED (sever emotional disorder). Crisis Intervention Professionals hope to collaborate with the school district and Youth Dynamics to create more as a way to create more eyes on Bozeman's youth and more ways to provide youth with mental health resources.

When asked about the recent partnership with Youth Dynamics, Superintendent Rob Watson said,

"We have mental health services within the schools, but sometimes some students require more help than the school can provide so we are always looking for more community support."

Watson also expressed interest in seeing how Crisis Intervention professionals could add to the school district's partnership with Youth Dynamics.

Schumacher says while creating a youth program like this could take years, he hopes to lay the foundation for the potential partnership sometime this summer.

"They [the school district] are aware of what we are at some level and we need to learn what they are at some level and build from there. It's building bridges and opportunities between the 2 organizations," said Schumacher.