CCIT

When a devastating tragedy occurs – a large-scale accident at a factory, the murder of a community leader or the suicide of a student for instance – the emotional impacts on the survivors can be brutal and far-reaching. Friends, teachers, classmates and co-workers can find themselves grappling with a wide range of confusing and unfamiliar feelings.

That’s when Lake County’s Community Crisis Intervention Team (CCIT) springs into action.

CCIT is a collaborative effort of the Lake County ADAMHS Board and several of its service-providing agencies. Its mission is to provide timely, coordinated, professional response to traumatic incidents that have broad community impact.

The CCIT strategy centers on dispatching a team of mental health professionals who meet with survivors in small groups and offer them ways to deal with their emotions productively and proactively. Each CCIT team member receives training in critical stress debriefing – a process developed originally to help police, fire and safety forces deal with the emotional aftershocks of a tragic event. The debriefing model emphasizes things like normalizing feelings, educating participants about symptoms of grief and stress and imparting coping skills and techniques.

Access to the Community Crisis Intervention Team is through the Crisis Hotline. Call 440-953-8255 to report an event and begin communication with a CCIT team leader.