Facilitating training for law enforcement officers to more effectively deal with mentally ill men and women-- and establishing a safe place for officers to take those people to get proper services-- have become the focal points for a local group charged with addressing Helena's mental health crisis.

Members of a Helena delegation that traveled to Memphis recently to attend specialized training on those issues agree that developing a local solution will take some time and it won't come without the financial support of the community.

"We're going to need community support for all of this," said Mignon Waterman, one of the coordinators of the effort. "I'd love to say that we'd have the training done by the end of the year ... and everything in place early next year, but I don't think it will be. This is a long process."

The mental health crisis in Helena -- and across the state -- was several years in the making.

However, it came to a flashpoint locally in 2002 when St. Peter's Hospital closed its mental health division after losing two of the psychiatrists who manned the short-term, acute care facility. On average, the support unit provided assistance to about 400 patients a year.

The closure of the unit left the community without such services, so officials were forced to direct mentally ill men and women to crisis units in other communities, the jail, or to Warm Springs State Hospital.

Those diversions have bred a cornucopia of problems that apply pressure in areas ranging from law enforcement to the medical profession.

In the 1980s, Memphis found itself in a similar predicament, and the Memphis Police Department developed the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) to help address the problem.

The program partners law enforcement officials with representatives of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), mental health providers and consumers to respond to crisis events related to mental illness and suicide issues.

Waterman secured a $7,000 grant through the state to send representatives from NAMI, law enforcement, St. Peter's Hospital and Golden Triangle to attend CIT training last month.

Their marching orders were to observe the Memphis system and determine which elements of it, if any, could be applied in Helena to better meet the needs of mentally ill men and women living in this community.

All of the trainees who were debriefed at a meeting of the group earlier this week expressed a healthy respect for the efficiency and compassion with which team members working under the Memphis system responded to crisis situations.

Darren Nealis, program director at Golden Triangle, said he had the opportunity to ride with CIT officers in Memphis to various calls and was impressed at the connection the officers had with the mentally ill men and women living in their districts.

He explained that the officers were knowledgeable of the medications the people were on, were somewhat aware of people's life circumstances, and even had a rapport with many of the consumers.

"A lot of folks (in mental health crisis) are de-escalated and hospitalization is prevented," Nealis said.

Sheriff Cheryl Liedle said this week that a police officer trained in the Memphis model might have been able to avert law enforcement's standoff this summer with a mentally ill man who holed himself up in his apartment with several weapons.

As it was, the man held police officers at bay for 18 hours and the standoff ended only when officials fired rounds of tear gas into the apartment.

"If we had had a crisis intervention team, the whole thing could have been avoided in the first place," Liedle said, explaining that CIT officers might have picked up on warning signs in the man's behavior that, instead, went unnoticed.

Deputy Dennis Nyland, who attended the Memphis training on behalf of the sheriff's office, said he believes such a system could be workable in Helena. However, it would be imperative to make participation in the program voluntary for deputies and police officers.

"Not everybody's going to be cut out to do it," he said, explaining that it takes a unique temperament to be effective in the position.

Helena Police Officer Lynette Flink agreed with Nyland and Nealis, but added that an important factor in the equation will be to develop a site where law enforcement personnel can take men and women in potential mental health crisis to be assessed.

"I don't think (mentally ill people) are getting the services they need while they're in crisis," she said of the current system in Helena.

In Memphis, law enforcement officers take people in apparent crisis to a "triage" center where mental health and medical professionals assess them and divert them toward appropriate services.

According to Waterman, the group agreed that establishing a triage center in Helena is imperative, but likely will be a long and arduous process.

In the meantime, group members would like to see law enforcement officers receive additional training in how to respond to mental health crisis situations.

Waterman estimates it will cost between $10,000 and $15,000 to send eight law enforcement officers from the Helena area to Memphis to receive in-depth training on crisis intervention techniques -- she's going to hit up a number of sources to help pay the cost of that.

While those officers who receive the crisis training will be able to respond to specific situations involving mentally ill people, members of the group agreed that law enforcement officers coming out of the Montana Law Enforcement Academy should have a basic understanding of how to handle such incidents until backup arrives.

Waterman said she will be in contact with officials from the Montana Department of Justice to determine whether such information could be incorporated into the academy's curriculum for trainees.

"We're going to be going to these calls anyway," Nyland said.

That training should give law enforcement the tools necessary to get by until the community can address the larger issue of the triage center, Waterman said.

"I think we've got the players," she said. "We just need to get them together and figure out what to do."

Anyone interested in getting more information on the issue or making suggestions for solutions is invited to a meeting of the Local Mental Health Advisory Council on Thursday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. at Golden Triangle Community Mental Health Center.