Excellence in Crisis Response: RHA Behavioral Health & G4S Private Security Crisis Intervention Team Win Award
A project that spun out of a partnership between RHA Behavioral Health (RHA), G4S Secure Solutions, an international security solutions contractor, and Coastal Care, a public managed care entity located in Wilmington, took one of the top awards for excellence at the NC Council of Community Programs (the Council) conference in December 2013.
Each year the Council recognizes projects that strengthen a community’s outreach efforts in supporting people with intellectual disabilities, mental illness, and/or addictive diseases.
The Council recognized the project as a very good example of the kind of collaboration that can render great results for people when diverse groups work together with a unified mission.
The award-winning project was the development of a curriculum for a custom, job-specific, Crisis Intervention Team 
(CIT) training program that would improve G4S employees’ understanding and competence as they engage with people in crisis. The curriculum taught G4S security staff members how to identify and react when they come upon a person experiencing a crisis. It also provided techniques for de-escalation.
Other results were: increased rapport between the project partners and family members, improved rate of stabilization for people receiving care at the crisis response centers and with mobile crisis management, and an enriched experience for people in crisis who benefitted from a more stable, consistent, and therapeutic system.
The program’s training included:
- Signs and symptoms of mental illness, intellectual/developmental disabilities and addictive diseases as well as the incorporation of verbal de-escalation strategies
- A “Hearing Voices” exercise
- Role playing scenarios
- The development of a consumer and family panel.
G4S security personnel have reported that they now feel more comfortable and are seeing much better results when they approach a person in crisis. Consumers and families also have an extra tool at their disposal when they arrive at the Crisis Response Center and G4S personnel now knows how to build rapport with people in crisis, which, in turn, improves the effectiveness of de-escalation efforts. G4S security staff now can escort people seeking long-term treatment directly to a service provider, diverting some emergency room visits.
We are proud of the RHA staff members who took part in this successful project as they help people in their communities with mental illness to lead safer and more stable lives. Many thanks to our partners for helping to make this effort a reality!
RHA provides 24-hours crisis services in the Coastal Care catchment area, including facility-based crisis services, mobile crisis management, and Crisis Response Center.
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