We were so fortunate to have a table at Comic Con and had a wonderful time meeting so many amazing people. Lots of cool and great ideas were discussed to improve the community.
We met a woman who talked to us about small homes to help individuals living on the streets. These are small houses that can be moved around and look nice in any section of a city. We heard from police officers, EMS personnel, medical professionals, and more about the lack of resources and knowledge to help individuals in crisis or who have a mental illness. Our CARE Cards were on display and we were able to get a bunch of people cards to help them in their daily lives. We were able to raise $1123 for our Helping Hands Cruiser Bag program! Amazing people competed in our pick a brain challenge and donated to our charity. Thank you all who helped out. Great businesses that were present at the convention donated items for our raffle drawing. Please check out the Helping Hand page for links to these great businesses. There were amazing people at Comic Con and if you have never been to one I suggest everyone attend their local Comic Con. The costumes were amazing and the fans are like none other. I cannot express enough how thankful I am for everyone who helped us. The community came together to help others who are in need.
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We will be at the 2015 Albuquerque Comic Con January 9-11th at the convention center. What a unique place to raise mental health awareness and do some fundraising for our programs. We will be conducting the iPad Mini Raffle and doing a fundraising game we are calling, Pick a Brain! One of the exciting things we will be doing is unveiling the artwork that was created by Jacob Spill showing his interpretation of mental health awareness and destigmatization. You can get prints of the artwork at our table. Also stop by to complete a one minute hear voices challenge, to help you understand the difficultly of audible hallucinations.
Click here for more on Comic Con! Click here for more on Jacob Spill! Teen Hotlines This is a great app for when looking for resource numbers for teenagers, or anyone for that matter. It has a whole list of national hotlines broken down into categories. Has medical, emotional, sex, pregnancy, and many more listed. This is extremely user friendly and fast to use. I recommend this to anyone who wants quick access to national lines in a fast user friending app. The best part is it is free! This app is universal and I think anyone in any profession could find it useful. It has fast functioning which makes it a great app to use for law enforcement so you are not distracted by your phone while out with someone face to face. Click here for the app Jacob Spill is an amazing artist from Española, NM who I met at the Santa Fe Comic Con. He has amazing talent and it shows in everything he touches. He was doing custom sketches in less than thirty minutes, creating full comic scenes. Not only did I purchase prints from him, he had some hidden gems with him to. He had brought his portfolio of traditional art pieces. He had some amazing abstract watercolor tree that he had not put on display. The colors he used drew me in and intrigued me, so I purchased all of his watercolors. His portfolio was diverse and he had no bad piece of art. I spoke to Jacob about the mission of CIT Inc. and he was excited about the positive changes we are doing. He wanted to create a character to show mental health awareness and change. He is currently working on some unique characters for us to use. We will soon have his work on custom t-shirts and prints that will be available to the public! I am so excited to see what he comes up with. Check him out here www.jspillart.com https://www.facebook.com/spillart We were recently asked “How do you tell that someone is living with a mental illness” in regards to making sure people are in the right services and programs for help. Well our answer was simple…ASK. I know that sounds like a trick but it is honestly simple, ask someone. It will not come across like you are making fun of or talking down to your client if you ask. Be professional and ask the question straight, “Are you living with a mental illness?” If you had to do a medical back ground how would you ask if someone is or has ever battled cancer? Think about that and ask your mental health question in that tone and delivery style. To end stigmas and further help someone, take the first step in asking the simple question. Here are some easy questions to help get you started: “I’m concerned about your health and well being … have you ever spoken to a therapist or psychiatrist?” “Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental illness?” “Have you ever been prescribed medication for your emotions or the way you were thinking?” “Have you ever been in a psychiatric hospital?” “Have you ever made a suicide attempt?” If they say yes to any of these, then talk about it more. If they say no, it doesn’t mean they haven’t had trouble with mental illness. Ask some very basic screening questions. “Have you ever felt so low that you didn’t want to live?” “Do you get angry easily? Do you feel like you’re not connected to other people?” “Sometimes people use drugs or alcohol to help with sleep or emotional pain, have you ever needed to do that?” “Do you avoid places or people because they make you feel uneasy or anxious? Do you often feel jumpy and on edge?” “Do you have trouble with anxiety? Racing thoughts? Obsession?” “Have you ever, in your life, heard people talking when no one was around?” “Have you ever felt like you we’re being watched or followed? That people were trying to hurt you?” Remember, if you’re not a doctor or therapist, use these questions simply to get the dialogue going. Let the other person do almost all of the talking. When speaking about very sensitive issues, always focus on establishing rapport and trust. Most times, the goal of the first conversation about mental illness is to have a second conversation. We had the opportunity to go to Roadrunner Food Band to meet the staff and get a tour. To start off the place is huge, they have a walk in refrigerator bigger than most apartments! The facilities are clean and modern, even the walls are a work of art done by a local artist. The staff was great and everyone is passionate about helping others, how couldn't you be working there. They offer tours and always take volunteers. Check the bottom of this entry to see their information. It was nice to see kids bagging food and helping out, they seemed to be having fun and it was nice to see them involved in the community. We will soon be partnering with Roadrunner to create what we are calling “cruiser bags” as part of the A Helping Hand program.
These bags will contain a bottle of water, small food items, and resource information for follow up. They will be distributed to the Albuquerque Police Department's Southeast Area Command’s officers to start the program. These bags are made possible from a community grant that we were awarded from Walmart. The management at store #831 stepped up to help the community with this program. The goal is to give officers a resource that they can use to immediately help someone in need. These bags will help the hungry, reduce recidivism, increase public trust, create more effective community engagement, and give information for follow up services. I truly believe that when a community sees their law enforcement helping the less fortunate in a positive way it raises community standards. It shows everyone that people are people and everyone needs a helping hand from time to time. Roadrunner Food Bank http://www.rrfb.org Main Line: 505-247-2052 Food Assistance Line: 505-349-8841 Toll Free: 866-327-0267 General E-Mail:info@rrfb.org We just attended the 2014 CIT International Conference in Monterey, CA. What a great turn out and agencies across the country and globe were present. There was great classes offered and great people attending. It was awesome to see such a large group of dedicate people who are out there trying to make a difference in their communities. Thank you to everyone who said hello and it was great meeting everyone. Enjoy some of the photos I was able to take while out there, it is ok to be jealous.
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The late Dr. George Thompson helped bring law enforcement to the modern age with concepts in communication. He had a knack at being able to look at a problem, find the solution, and then teach the solution so us in law enforcement could understand. If any of you who read this are law enforcement instructors you understand the difficulty of teaching a new concept or idea to a bunch of law enforcement officers. He was the creator of Verbal Judo; you can still find his publications online. The basis of all his communication techniques started with five principles that he called universal truths. These truths should be the starting point of all law enforcement contacts.
They are as follows: All people should be · Treated with dignity and respect · Asked rather than being told · Educated or explain the reason for being asked · Given options rather than threats · Given a second chance I truly believe in these concepts and if I have handled my interaction with someone with these five principles in mind then I can say I tried my best. Treat everyone with dignity and respect is the first principle. This should be a given to all law enforcement professionals. You should start every shift and every contact with this in mind. Keeping this principle in mind will help reduce complaints against you and will make you a role model for coworkers and your community. Asked someone rather than telling him or her to do something. This can be a tricky to continue to do and often I hear the Ask, Tell, Make model come out. “I asked him, then I told him and then I made him sit down”. The problem with that approach is it took you less than a minute to get to the making and all it caused was the person you were interacting with get upset. This approach extends the time you have to spend building rapport for future cooperation. Get in the habit of asking people to do things, unless safety is an issue there is no reason for you not to ask someone to complete a task. I am not sure why we feel the need to not educated or explain the reason for our request in law enforcement. I think we get this idea that it is officer safety but all it does is get us into the argument of “because I said to do it”. If you have to tell someone to take their hands out of their pockets and they give you the angry look and ask why, explain it to them. “Well first off I don’t know you and often times people have knives in their pockets. I don’t want to get stabbed today or mistake you pulling out a knife from your pocket”. Did you give up safety by saying that, no. You set contexts for the person and if you are recording the contact or someone else is, there is no room for misunderstanding on why you asking them to do something. Educating people on our procedures and why we do things humanizes us and builds rapport quickly and the quicker you build rapport the quicker you gain compliance. Giving options lets the person feel that they made the decision. You can easily convince a person into cuffs by giving them the options. You go to a convenience store about a disturbance, when you arrive you see a guy in an argument with the staff. Staff tells you they just want him to leave, but like normal he refuses now what? You can take him out kicking and screaming, get a use of force and be on a simple call for your whole shift or, give him options. “Sir unfortunately this business asked you to leave, you do though have a few good options. You can choose to leave now and we can all be done with this incident or I can place you in handcuffs and escort you out and make a report”. The last is to give people a second chance. This applies to the above scenario. You asked someone to leave the store and they refused, so you gave the options. You now give them a second chance to comply and leave on their own. This kind of goes hand in hand with giving options, you are just allowing someone a second chance to save face with you and the public. PsychTerms This is a free app that has over 1000 terms that are psychiatric related. Unless you are a doctor you probably don’t know all the words you might be reading about and unfortunately doctors like to use big fancy words to us common folk, so use this app to help you. I find it helpful when reading through research papers or after a meeting with hospital staff. The app is currently free in the iTunes store so check it out. We are now part of Albertsons Community Partners program! It is a simple way for you to help our organization maintain its mission and support mental health awareness. If you shop at Albertsons, or plan to, simply have the cashier scan your community partner card that we provide. Albertson’s will then make a donation to our charity once a quarter! What an easy way to give back by doing what you normally do! If you would like to help us please e-mail us at Info@goCIT.org with your address and we will mail you a card! You can always help us out by making a donation, every dollar helps! ASK This is a suicide prevention app from Mental Health America of Texas. The app includes warning signs and tips on how to talk about suicide. Included is a listed of suicide and crisis lines in english and spanish. Click here for the Apple App NYPD saves suicidal woman from ending her life. You can see from the video that the woman was on her last leg and lost all hope to live. Officers approached her and grabbed her around her waist to pull her back on top of the roof. Think about what tactics you would use to help someone who is suicidal. If you were in this situation would you have grabbed her right away or would you have negotiated? This is a good video to use for roll call training, to provide dialog for training discussion. Great work NYPD of saving her life and getting her the help she needs! What’s your worse fear about death? Is it dying a horrible death by drowning or fire? What about being murdered by gangsters? I honestly believe people do not want to die; we all have a need to survive and live. There are times when we let our minds trick us into thinking death is the only option for a problem we face, but that is not a wanting to die but a wanting to fix an issue. Suicide is more than an issue in the United States it honestly is an epidemic. The stigma associated with it is still huge making the conversation about suicide hard to start and continue. My favorite stigma about suicide is “if you talk about it, people will do it”. Seriously! Do you really believe that? Your local and national news always reports and talks about someone being murdered, does that make you want to go kill someone? We have to drop that stigma and open up the conversation about suicide. I wanted to find numbers of death in the US that were recorded from a source that is creditable so I choose the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The information I am looking at is from 2010 because that is the most accurate information the CDC has currently. In 2010 we had over 300 million people in the US. Lets take a look at some of our fears of death and the reality of what actually kills us. I think death by fire is one of the scariest thought of death for many people. Yearly 2,640 people die by fire. That number actually came form a study done in 2011. Drowning is probably up there with fire for scariest death for a lot of folks. The average amount of deaths by drowning was 3,533 between 2005-2009. Have you heard of the RED campaign? They are advertised in hospitals, musicians release records for them; I think it is a commonly seen logo for a campaign for AIDS/HIV. I’m by no means trying to down play the dieses or say it is not important to tackle the world wide epidemic of it but I was really surprised to see the amount of deaths. In the US there were 8,369 deaths related to the dieses for 2010. I always hear about the gun epidemic in the US and that gun crimes are on a rise. I thought that homicide/murder would be in the top ten for deaths in the US, but I was wrong. The total for homicide deaths was 16,259. I remember the gruesome videos I watched in driver’s education called Red Asphalt and it changed my perspective on safety in vehicles. Locally there are huge media campaigns for safe driving targeting texting, using your phone, driving while intoxicated and more. We even have a seat belt campaign and police stand on street corners to see if you are wearing yours. The total amount of deaths by automobile crashes was 33,687. So where does suicide stand in compared to these? It has to be under homicide because of all the gun crimes I hear about. Surely it is under AIDS/HIV deaths because I am familiar with the campaigns and push for more knowledge. I have seen car crashes on the interstates and in town so I know that claims more lives. If you thought like I did you are wrong, I was wrong. Suicide claims 38,364 lives a year. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. If it is so high how come we don’t hear about it in school, on TV, in the new paper and other outlets? The only reason I can come up with is the stigma. It is much easier to accept the other causes of death because you think there is nothing you could have done to prevented it, it is an accident. It is also hard to accept the fact that to kill yourself means you are the one having the problem. Here it is all together Deaths by Fire 2,640 Water 3,533 AIDS/HIV 8,369 Homicide/Murder 16,259 Automobile 33,687 Suicide 38,364 Have you ever crossed the street to get away from a scary person or group? Have you stayed out of a section of town because of gang problem? You do this out of fear of being harmed and killed. Have you crossed the street to get away from your shadow? How about duck and hide from the person in the mirror? You should because you are twice a likely to die by your own hands than the hands of someone else. That is a scary thought! Say it out loud “you are more likely to die by your own hands than homicide”. That one threw me for a loop. I really hope that this opens up your eyes to the epidemic of suicide in the US. Start the conversation with your family and friends. Talk about how to get help and what clinics are available in your area. It is a lot easier to talk about suicide than talk about the tragedy of loosing a loved one to suicide. National suicide hotline and resources
1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255) 1-888-628-9454 Spanish Suicide Prevention Line 1-800-784-2433 www.hopeline.com This will connect you with a crisis center in your area. American Association of Suicidology www.suicidology.org American Foundation for Suicide Prevention www.afsp.org Sibling Survivors of Suicide http://www.siblingsurvivors.com/index.htm SAVE https://www.save.org/ I hope that everyone takes the time to meet David. David is a citizen of Albuquerque who is living on the streets. Unfortunately David is not a unique case but one of many seen across the United States. Police detectives came in contact with David because he was hanging objects in trees along route 66. When asked how long he has been homeless David said, ”Clocks don’t work with me” and that he cannot remember the last time he had a home. David was offered multiple resources and only asked for food. He told detectives that it is hard to carry food with him on the streets so he only eats the food left in trashcans on the street. He said he does not go to food kitchens or food pantries because he does not trust the people around him. He was offered a gift card to Wal-Mart but refused it saying the Wal-Mart card readers do not work for him. Detectives instead went to Wal-Mart and with a $10 gift card they purchased David a backpack, six-pack of water, crackers, cookies and peanut butter. They said David was ecstatic to see the cookies and said it was the first time he’s had cookies in over three years. David was also given a resource book of local programs that he has available to him. David said he wished police would carry around word puzzles or coloring books for people like him to keep their minds stimulate. David showed officers his crayons that he keeps in a waterproof bag and said without mind simulation he gets in trouble. Traditional services in place to help the homeless are hard for David to navigate and find. Unfortunately for David he is left until he reaches a point of crisis for first responders to take him for services at the hospital. Therapist Finder This is a must have for law enforcement or any field service provider for mental health across the country. First like most of my favorite apps, it is free. Secondly you just click the type of service your looking for (Counseling, Psychiatrist, Psychologist, Therapist and more) and it will tell you where the closest to you is located and contact information for it. It is a pretty simple app and isn’t to fancy, so if you want fancy look away. This is available in iTunes and I am not sure if it is available for android. Download it and give it a shot, it doesn’t cost you anything and maybe it will help you save a life! Click here for the app If you have an app and would like us to feature it please email us at info@goCIT.org Have you ever wondered why should I give to help those in need? If you have please take 60 seconds to watch this social experiment. Can you spare a dollar to help someone in need? I use this iTunes app almost daily while I am at work. It is easy to use and helps me quickly gain information from the name of medications people tell me they are taking. I can quickly check up and see if the medications they told me they take for depression might actually be for schizophrenia. This app is good for finding out information on psych medications, quickly and with ease. The only negative is this app is for mental health medication only, so if you are trying to figure out another medication you come across you will be out of luck. I truly believe this is a must have for every first responder. The great thing about this app is it is free! So get it before they start charging! http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/psych-drugs/id330545327?mt=8 We met up with Bosque Farms Police Department as they were holding a mental health awareness class. We are partnering with them to help establish A Helping Hand Project in their community to help the vulnerable. We got to meet excellent law enforcement personnel from Santa Fe Police Department, UNM Police Department and Valencia County Sheriffs Department! We were told a story that an officer responding to a call for a welfare check and found a young child in need. The child had no bed, dresser and few clothes. The officer paid out of his own pocket $500! To help the child and purchased the items he needed. He even brought them to the house and set them up. Officers shared their stories of helping others and the lack of services or ability to help more. There is difficulty getting to treatment in the outskirts of Albuquerque when you have no means or money for transportation to your appointment. Often times you are left to the mercy of your illness. Officers go out with people on regular bases that have no money to pay for their medications or have a means to obtain them. They spoke of times when people have not eaten for a few days and providing them with a simple meal helped more than we can imagine. A Helping Hand Project is for these people. Thank you for your donations to help the vulnerable population in our community. Bosque Farms Police Website Click Here Bosque Farms Police Facebook Click Here IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nonprofit teams up with Bosque Farm’s Police to help people living with mental illness By Matthew Tinney July 9, 2014 Albuquerque, NM – Local nonprofit the Crisis Intervention Team, Inc. (CIT, Inc.) announces the Helping Hand Project. It is designed to keep people living with mental illness and/or homelessness out of jail. Often times when law enforcement responds to a crisis situation involving these specific groups, they are left with limited options to help. People in crisis need their basic needs met immediately – a warm bed or meal. When these individuals are taken to jail, the source of the problems prompting a police response are not addressed. They are eventually released, untreated, still homeless, and without coping options. The Bosque Farm’s Police Department (BFPD) has graciously agreed to partner with CIT, Inc. to implement the Helping Hand Project and end this cycle. Together, their goal is to provide immediate services to those in crisis, like food, shelter, and safety. Then use established support programs as a bridge to get them into long-term services like housing and mental health care. The Helping Hand Project will make this possible with donations made through their website www.goCIT.org. The Helping Hand Project gives law enforcement a way to make a difference in your community by helping the most disenfranchised people in crisis. Their long-term goals are to end homelessness and avoid community tragedies. The Crisis Intervention Team, Inc. (CIT Inc.) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3), organization in Albuquerque, NM that aims to promote public safety, destigmatization, reduce tragedies and enrich the lives of those affected by mental illness. For more information on CIT, Inc. and their projects please see their website http://www.goCIT.org ### Contact To learn more about this, please contact Matthew Tinney, Director Crisis Intervention Team, Inc. Matthew@goCIT.org I am so excited that Bosque Farm’s Police Department is going to participate in the Helping Hands Project. They see the need to help others in their community and reached out to us to provide some training. Little did they know we will be providing another option for them when it comes to helping individuals in crisis who are living with a metal illness and/or homeless! It is nice to see this agency stepping up their level of policing to get training in helping those in crisis. Check out BFPD Facebook here Check out BFPD Website here We are also teaming up with the Albuquerque Police Department and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department to help those in need. We will be delivering Walmart cards this week! Thank you Katy Pollock, Sergiu Iva, Marguerite Greiner for stepping up to the challenge and taking the bucket of ice water on your heads! Thank you Chris Tinney for accepting the challenge and taking the ice bucket! You are amazing!
Both of these two chomped out but for a good cause. Thank you Brenda Sylvest and Lynda Pollock for your donations and helping out the charity.
Lauren Patton donated and completed the ice bucket challenge! Thanks for stepping up and taking the freeze for a good cause! Do you want to complete the challenge? Check out our fundraising page for more information!
Dana Patton completing the ice bucket challenge for CIT, www.goCIT.org! Are you up for the challenge or can you not handle the cold?!
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