THE COMMUNITY I SERVE:
LAW ENFORCEMENT & PERSONS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS
Police officers and mental health advocates
agree that specialized training that prepares officers
to understand and recognize psychiatric symptoms and
learn new skills to de-escalate mental illness crisis
situations promotes the safety and well being of both
police officers and those suffering with mental illness.
The Community I Serve: Law Enforcement & Persons
with Mental Illness is a 26-minute training film that
presents the real life experience of law enforcement
personnel, consumers of mental health services and their
families. The film challenges stereotypes of law enforcement
officers as rigid and uncaring, and shows the many roles
that they are called on to perform. Scenarios taken
from real encounters are presented, and are used to
illustrate symptom recognition, verbalization skills
and officer interaction with people with mental illness.
NAMI NEW JERSEY is grateful to the members of the Collingswood,
NJ Police Department, the Union County, NJ office of
the Prosecutor, and the consumers and family members
of NAMI NEW JERSEY for the dedication and enthusiasm
in which they immersed themselves in this project. The
very process of producing this film clearly illustrates
that law enforcement personnel and mental health advocates
can come together in mutual respect and cooperation
to have a positive impact on our communities.
The Community I Serve has won the Best
of Competition in the Educational/Instructional category
of the Broadcast
Education Association(BEA)'s Festival of Media Arts,
as well as the King Family Foundation "Best of
Festival" award at BEA. Omusha Communications is
the producer of this doumentary. To learn more about
Omusha Communications, visit their website at www.omusha.com
or write to aabha@omusha.com.
A DVD of this documentary is available for interested
mental health organizations across the nation. For ordering
information, click
here.
Please contact Phil Lubitz at plubitz@naminj.org
for more information about this training film.
