Aware of the challenges faced by returning veterans, crisis intervention teams have been expanding their reach to include this population.
"Veterans are positive people who have given to our country and to our communities," says Tom Kirchberg, PhD, chief of psychology at the Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who since 1996 has conducted and helped to professionalize the veterans' portion of crisis intervention training in Memphis and other locations. "So when they face trouble, we want to help them get back on track and contributing in the community — because they like contributing."
Newer developments include:
Training VA police on crisis intervention. In 2007, Kirchberg began working with the Memphis police to ensure that all crisis intervention team trainings in Memphis include a slot for a VA police officer. This addition — which has resulted in the training of four new VA officers each year — has helped enable civilian and VA police to work better together in serving people with mental illness. It's also helped VA police better understand problems from a community perspective.
Since 2011, the Memphis team also connected the training with the Veterans Justice Outreach Program, which reaches out to troubled veterans to help them avoid incarceration. "It's not a stretch to say that most veteran crises occur in the community," says Kirchberg. "Law enforcement officers who understand the combat veteran's perspective, whether they're from the VA or from the community, stand a good chance of successfully resolving an escalating crisis."
The training could mean the difference between a positive and poor post-military trajectory for these service men and women, says Weaver. He recalls the case of a veteran who was threatening to hurt someone. Before the training, officers would likely have taken him straight to jail. Instead, the responders recognized symptoms of traumatic brain injury (TBI), so they took him to the VA's TBI unit where they discovered he was a patient.
"Here is a veteran who is able to go back where folks know how to work with him," says Weaver. "He isn't starting into the revolving door."
— Tori DeAngelis
