NAMI Maine’s CEO joins Crisis Intervention Team International board of directors

HALLOWELL — National Alliance on Mental Health Maine’s chief executive officer Jenna Mehnert has been appointed to CIT International Inc.’s board of directors. Crisis Intervention Team training is an international program designed to create partnerships between mental health providers and law enforcement officers in local communities. In collaboration with the Portland Police Department, Ingraham and Spring Harbor, NAMI Maine developed Maine’s initial CIT Program in 2002. Since 2002, NAMI Maine has been proud to coordinate CIT across the entire state.
Mehnert, who has earned a master’s degree in social work, has held a variety of policy and funding roles focused on mental health and criminal justice system reform before returning to Maine to serve as CEO of NAMI Maine. Mehnert previously worked for the office of the criminal justice coordinator in New York City and the office of the deputy mayor for public safety and justice in Washington, D.C. She had the honor of representing all NAMI chapters on the International Association of Chiefs of Police blue ribbon committee that developed the “One Mind Campaign,” addressing the connection between mental health and law enforcement.
CIT is a nonprofit membership organization whose primary purpose is to facilitate understanding, development and implementation of its programs throughout the U.S. and worldwide in order to promote and support collaborative efforts to create and sustain more effective interactions among law enforcement, mental health care providers, individuals with mental illnesses, their families, and communities and to reduce the stigma of mental illness.
For more information, call Alicia Hynes at 207-622-5767, ext. 2308.