Police Agencies In West Virginia Lacking In Specific Mental Health Training

By Erin Beck While the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has said West Virginia has one of the highest rates of severe mental illness in the country, the state is one of a very few with no police agencies that undergo crisis intervention team training, a well-respected model that helps officers learn how to more empathetically and constructively communicate with people experiencing mental health crises, according to national advocates for the program. Crisis intervention team training began in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1988 after police shot a mentally ill man wielding a knife.