Finding a way through crisis

A man without any pants walks into a shop.

Wearing a suit coat and tie, he’s unaware he has forgotten his pants.

A veteran is blocking a bar’s restroom door and is refusing to move. In his mind, he is back in the war zone.

Broken-hearted after a breakup, a woman stands next to a rooftop ledge, threatening to jump.

“Remember, your goal in these situations is not to go to jail,” Billings Police Officer Darcy Dahle told a group of law enforcement officers participating in a recent training program.

Through Crisis Intervention Team training, about 40 Montana officers were in Billings to practice interacting with someone with a mental health crisis.

“If you use the skills we taught, you’ll do fine in most of these scenarios, but, if you revert back to tough, authoritarian cops, you’ll never win,” Dahle told the officers before they confronted practice featuring actors portraying scenarios including the pants-less man.

Crisis Intervention Teams have formed in more than 35 communities across the country, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which helped develop the program model.

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