Mental Health Program

One goal of this program is to identify individuals with a mental illness, allowing law enforcement officers to respond more appropriately to their needs when experiencing a crisis.

The Mental Health Awareness Flag is a visual indicator in the Rock County Law Enforcement Management System that notifies an officer that an individual may experience mental illness.

Similar to a medical alert bracelet, the Mental Health Awareness Flag is a resource that provides law enforcement officers additional information that may help them respond appropriately and maximize safety for the individual, the officer, and the community.

The Mental Health Awareness Flag is a prompt for officers to utilize Crisis Intervention Team skills during their response, to consider the impact of potential mental illness to the incident at hand, and to assist with the officer’s approach and decision making.

The goal of this program is to create a customized response plan for individuals that are likely to experience a mental health crisis requiring a law enforcement response.

A Crisis Strategy Information Sheet (CSIS) is a form kept in a Law Enforcement database, for individuals that may experience a mental health crisis and are likely to have frequent contact with Law Enforcement.  In many circumstances, the individual involved takes an active role in preparing the crisis plan.