NAMI DELAWARE
offers an innovative, community-based approach to improve the outcomes of crisis intervention
NAMI’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) programs create connections between law enforcement, mental health providers, hospital emergency services and individuals with mental illness and their families. Through collaborative community partnerships and intensive training, CIT improves communication, identifies mental health resources for those in crisis and ensures officer and community safety.
To date, NAMI Delaware has coordinated:
26 Crisis Intervention Team trainings,
12 Veteran Response Team trainings,
7 Advanced CIT trainings,
2 CIT for 911 Call-Takers/Dispatchers trainings and
2 Crisis Intervention Partners trainings,
for a total of 1,016 Delaware personnel trained.
(Last Updated: 10/20/2025)
THE BENEFITS OF CIT
CIT programs can help keep people with mental illness out of jail and in treatment, on the road to recovery. In addition, it can:
★ The Delaware CIT classes are open to all law enforcement officers and agencies in Delaware.
TRAINING OPTIONS IN DELAWARE
Crisis Intervention Team is a 40-hour, weeklong, training class that provides various core curriculum components including:
- Introduction to Mental Illness and Psychiatric Medications
- Family & Consumer Perspective
- De-Escalation Techniques
- Negotiations for the First Responder
- Risk Assessment and Suicide Intervention
- Excited Delirium
- Cognitive and Developmental Disabilities
- Children’s Mental Health Issues
For many years a dedicated group of mental health and criminal justice professional have been working to bring CIT to Delaware. In May 2014 the first class of 38 Delaware law enforcement officers from 7 different agencies graduated from the pilot CIT training class.
See below to inquire about availability in the upcoming courses!
Delaware’s Emergency Detention Form:
CIT Related Resources
Mobile Crisis, Recovery Centers, Child Priority Response, etc.:
NAMI Delaware’s former CEO/Executive Director is interviewed about CIT in Delaware.
NAMI Delaware manages the VRT training for Delaware in partnership with Sub-Committee members. The VRT Sub-Committee consists of members of the Delaware State Police, New Castle County Police Department, Wilmington Police Department, Veterans Administration, NAMI Delaware, Superior Court, and Delaware’s Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health.
For more information, please click the button below.
Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training has been implemented in Delaware since 2014, but follow-up trainings have not been. Thanks to grant funding, NAMI Delaware and the CIT committee have been working on creating Advanced CIT classes. These trainings would look to refresh officers on basic de-escalation skills and other knowledge gained in the original 40-hour class, as well as expand on more specialized topics.
Since CIT training was built out of a need for increased mental health training amongst law enforcement officers, it has been highly specialized for this particular audience. However, as more information about these trainings have been disseminated, and research has shown the effectiveness of it, other community members have been interested in taking the class. There is a huge need for a deeper understanding of mental health conditions and de-escalation skills during a crisis for anyone working a public facing job, which is where Crisis Intervention Partners (CIP) training comes in! This 16-hour training will go over necessary information around recognizing a mental health crisis and how to respond for a non-law enforcement audience.
NAMI Delaware provides a number of trainings and presentations for law enforcement agencies. These range from general mental health awareness to more specialized presentations. If your agency is interested, please contact Wesley Ingram at wingram@namide.org or call our office.
