About

About the council

The West Central CIT Council serves Benton, Hickory, and St. Clair counties in west central Missouri. The council was established in 2017 as part of the Missouri Crisis Intervention Team (MO CIT) program. The Missouri Department of Mental Health, in partnership with the Missouri Behavioral Health Council, provides administrative and financial support for the statewide program.

The Missouri CIT program is a partnership that includes law enforcement, behavioral health providers, hospitals, the court system, individuals with lived experience, and community partners dedicated to implementing the Missouri Model of CIT. Council meetings are a place for team collaboration, sharing best practices, identifying local resources, spotlighting local agencies, and planning trainings and events.

Our purpose

Following the Missouri Model of CIT, the council works to:

• Promote more effective interactions between law enforcement and people in crisis, through a 40-hour training centered on behavioral health education and de-escalation skills

• Improve the safety of officers and the people they serve

• Divert people in crisis away from the criminal justice system and toward care

• Reduce stigma around mental illness

• Expand CIT, especially in rural areas like ours

CIT-trained officers focus on de-escalation and on connecting people experiencing a mental health crisis with appropriate care. Instead of defaulting to the criminal justice system, officers are trained to redirect people to the mental health system, where they can get a full range of health and social services.

What is CIT?

A Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program is a community partnership of law enforcement, mental health and addiction professionals, people who live with mental illness or addiction, their families, and other partners. Together they work to improve community responses to mental health crises.

CIT began with the "Memphis Model," first developed in 1988. It has since spread throughout the United States and to other countries. NAMI reports that CIT programs operate in over 2,700 communities nationwide.

Missouri uses a standardized 40-hour CIT curriculum statewide.

A Missouri CIT council