Police Officers Receive Crisis Responder Training Certification

Twelve Law Enforcement Officers across the State received certification as Crisis Responder Trainers on June 7, 2010 at a ceremony honoring their achievement at the Kent County Courthouse in Warwick. These officers completed a three day program created by the Department of Mental Health Retardation and Hospitals (MHRH) with assistance from Richard Crino, RN, CTR, QMHP, Vice President of Acute & Community Incident Services at NRI Community Services.

Over the past 10 years, Mr. Crino, along with Lt. Robin Winslow, Coventry Police Department’s Planning and Career Development Officer, have developed a training initiative with police and fire departments in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine that offer first responders the skills to recognize and respond safely to the mentally ill and those with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This was the model for the MHRH program in effect today. Speaking at the event, Lt. Winslow stated, “The partnership with mental health professionals is essential to furthering the ability of officers to respond to situations where mental illness is leading factor in a crisis.” Crino presented success stories after stating, “When police intervention is successful in these situations, you don’t hear about them.”

Mr. Crino, an employee of NRI Community Services for 24 years, has extensive experience in both adult inpatient and outpatient psychiatric practice, and presently oversees NRICS’ Behavioral Health Acute Stabilization Unit located at the SSTAR campus in N. Kingstown, RI.

Officers from Police Departments in Bristol, Cumberland, Lincoln, Little Compton, Pawtucket, Providence, Scituate, Warwick, and the University of Rhode Island received certification that will enable them to train other officers to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness, and act responsibly and without prejudice with a mentally ill individual who is in crisis. Sgt. Richard Champagne of Cumberland and Lt. William Sexton of Lincoln were among those certified. Guest speakers included Colonel Joseph P. Moran, III, President of the RI Police Chiefs Association, and Craig S. Stenning, Director of the RI Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals.

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