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Any law enforcement agency or community mental health center, as a participating partner, is authorized to establish Crisis Intervention Teams to provide for psychiatric emergency services and triage and referral services for persons who are with substantial likelihood of bodily harm as a more humane alternative to confinement in a jail.
A Crisis Intervention Team shall have one or more designated hospitals within the specified catchment area that has agreed to serve as a single point of entry and to provide psychiatric emergency services, triage and referral services and other appropriate medical services for persons in custody of a CIT officer or referred by the community mental health center within the specified catchment area.
Any hospital, as a participating partner and serving as a single point of entry, is authorized to establish a comprehensive psychiatric emergency service to provide psychiatric emergency services to a person with mental illness or an impairment caused by drugs or alcohol for a period of time greater than allowed in a hospital emergency department when, in the opinion of the treating physician, psychiatric nurse practitioner or psychiatric physician assistant, that person likely can be stabilized within seventy-two (72) hours so that continuing treatment can be provided in the local community rather than a crisis intervention center or state psychiatric hospital.
Two (2) or more governmental entities may jointly provide Crisis Intervention Teams and comprehensive psychiatric emergency services authorized under Sections 41-21-131 through 41-21-143. For the purpose of addressing unique rural service delivery needs and conditions, the State Department of Mental Health may authorize two (2) or more community mental health centers to collaborate in the development of Crisis Intervention Teams and comprehensive psychiatric emergency services and will facilitate the development of those programs.