Notes from the Field: Judge Christine Carpenter on Trauma-Informed Courts

     First, I'd like to thank Chris Engel for posting this item, and the link in it to the Trauma-Informed Courts website...which included a link to the 2016 CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) Conference and CIT training for Law Enforcement.

     When the Chief and two CIT officers from Concord, New Hampshire's Police Department did a presentation for the NH MH Consumer Council, in April of 2012, it was noted that CIT units also exist in a few other N.H. municipality's police departments. In my brief interaction with those three officers, I was amazed at how similar their style was to "Risking Connection" as it occurs in "[trauma-informed] Intentional Peer Support". At least two municipal police departments in Massachusetts have their own "Police Peer Support" programs (Boston and Cambridge), and those Police Peer Support programs are affiliated with the [international Crisis/Respite service for both First Responders and Human Service personnel, with EMDR certified clinicians] On-Site Academy in Gardner, Massachusetts.                                                                                                                                               I wish the On-Site Academy's Crisis/Respite option for Human Service personnel had been available when I had had challenges on the job in 2001, 1998, ...... and before that, when I worked as a "First Responder" in 1985-86, and thought CISD (Critical Incident Stress Debriefing) training might allow me to go back to that work.

     But, if my sharing this will offer hope to others, that such options are now available, then my self-disclosure will not have been in vain...besides, I'm nearing retirement age--if Congress doesn't keep raising it.