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By AJ French, Crisis
Intervention Team (CIT) Project Leader
Sergeant Tim
Gallion is a Crisis and Hostage Negotiator from the Edwardsville Police
Department. He is also one of the finest CIT officers within Madison County.
 He
has devoted a tremendous amount of his own personal time to insure the success
of the CIT program. This includes being part of a panel of four officers that
participated in CIT Education Forum in July 2005. Later in October 2005, he
joined Statewide CIT Coordinator Shelley Daunis and an officer from St. Clair
County during a breakout session at the Consumer Conference. I recently had a
chance to sit down and talk with Sgt. Gallion (once again, on his own time) and
would like to share some of our conversation with you.
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Before he was a CIT
officer, Sgt. Gallion often found himself responding to calls from people who
live with mental illness. When he learned about the (CIT) training that would
teach officers how to better handle these kinds of situations, he was all for
it. "I saw it as a way to be part of a change to make things better" he said.
The training itself really "personalized the frustration" people with mental
illness experience, especially the headphones exercise. During this exercise,
officers are instructed to listen to a tape recording that simulates the voices
a person with Schizophrenia may hear. While they are listening to the tape
through headphones, they are simultaneously completing simple tasks such as
listing Christmas songs. The purpose of this activity is to give officers a better
understanding how mental illness affects consumers. Sgt. Gallion says that
although he can't know exactly what a consumer feels, he was able to "have just
a taste of being able to relate" to consumers because of the CIT training. He
said it made him more sensitive and understanding.
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When I asked Sgt.
Gallion if there was an especially significant CIT call that stood out in his
mind, he quickly responded "to be real recent, about ten o'clock this morning."
Without giving me any identifying information, he shared with me the nature of
his call. An elderly gentleman had telephoned his counselor trying to arrange a
Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order. The counselor was concerned that her client was
possibly suicidal and called the police. After arriving at the resident's home
and speaking with the man, Sgt. Gallion realized that he had not been eating or
taking care of himself. When the resident indicated that he was giving away many
of his personal possessions, Gallion concurred with the counselor and believed
the man was suicidal. Although the man was initially against the idea,
eventually he was persuaded to be hospitalized in order to receive treatment.
This CIT call gets even better. Once Sgt. Gallion arrived back at the police
department he received a phone call from a family member of the man struggling
with depression. Apparently the family had been trying for several months to
talk their relative into admitting himself to the hospital. Until now, he had
adamantly refused to go. The family was extremely grateful that he's now
receiving the psychiatric care that will help keep him alive. He reflected on
the phone call saying "I was very touched by that."
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Sgt. Gallion had a
few comments for consumers and family members alike. He talked about the
reluctance that consumers have to discuss their illness and said that sometimes
people just feel embarrassed about it. He also said that a significant number of
CIT calls are from consumers who have had a negative experience with the police
before CIT was implemented in Madison County. He wanted consumers to know "that
CIT officers are there to help them, regardless of their experience with police
in the past." He also wanted family members to know that they can help during a
CIT call by giving the officer as much background information as possible. He
told me that knowing what medication a person is taking is not as important as
knowing what they are taking it for. He said that knowing a person's past mental
health history is important because it can help determine what a consumer might
be experiencing during a crisis. He stressed that knowing if a person has a
history of violence is absolutely critical to insure the safety of everyone
involved. We here at the NAMI Llama ranch wish to thank Sgt. Tim Gallion for
his heartfelt dedication and encourage him to keep up the good work!
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CIT Madison County
