The Adairsville Police Department is pleased to announce that they have completed a pledge they took to improve their response to those suffering from mental illness in their community. The pledge is part of an initiative called the One Mind Campaign started by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), a 30,000-member professional association for law enforcement that provides training, technical assistance, and recruitment services. To join the One Mind Campaign, law enforcement agencies must pledge to implement four promising practices in a 12-36-month period to ensure successful future interactions between police officers and persons with mental illness.

In the law enforcement community, mental illness has become a common focus, with some departments estimating that as many as 20% of their calls for service are related to mental health declines. Chief Mike Jones made the decision to join the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s One Mind Campaign because it was one of his goals when he took the position as Chief in January 2018. The training received in crisis intervention class will help the officers achieve a more positive outcome with those experiencing a mental health crisis.

In completing the One Mind Pledge, the Adairsville Police Department established a sustainable partnership with Highland Rivers Health and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In addition, the Police Department developed and implemented a model policy to address officers’ interactions with those affected by mental illness and ensured that all of their officers received some type of mental health awareness training, with at least 20% of the department completing the more intensive Crisis Intervention Training.

In fact, 100% of Adairsville Police staff in sworn positions have received the Crisis Intervention Training and all civilian staff have received training in mental health first aid. The 40-hour Crisis Intervention curriculum is designed by local agencies to train a team of specialized officers to respond to calls that involve individuals with mental health disorders or intellectual disability. The curriculum includes education on various de-escalation techniques as well as live role-play scenarios of officers responding to persons who need mental health assistance.

The greatest benefit in adopting all strategies of the One Mind Campaign pledge has been the knowledge it has provided Adairsville officers. They have already seen benefits from the training. In July, two officers executed their training in preventing a man from jumping off the State Route 140 bridge onto I-75. The Adairsville Police Department is very excited that their officers are 100% trained in crisis intervention.

More information about the One Mind Campaign can be found on the IACP website: theiacp.org/onemindcampaign. For more information on the Mental Health First Aid course, the website is mentalhealthfirstaid.org.