NaphCare's Bill Kissel - New Georgia State Chairperson of CIT

By NaphCare Inc

Published: 03/09/2011

| Company Profile | CorrectSource

Article:
William P. Kissel, MS, CCHP, NaphCare’s Assistant Vice President of Mental Health, is chairing a taskforce of sheriffs, jail administrators and mental health professionals, from 6 metro Atlanta Jails to include the following sheriff’s departments; Clayton County ,Dekalb County, Fulton County, Gwinnett County, Newton County and Rockdale County. The taskforce, which was organized by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Georgia Chapter, is focused on addressing the ever increasing issue of the incarceration of persons’ with a serious mental illness. Mr. Kissel is a board member of the NAMI, Georgia Chapter, as well as the Georgia State Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) advisory board chairperson.

Specific issues being addressed by the taskforce include; data collection, discharge planning, housing, supportive employment, substance treatment, access to state psychiatric hospitals, and training opportunities.

The initial meeting was held in September 2010 and hosted by Newton County Sheriff, Ezell Brown. The next meeting was held in December 2010 and was hosted by Fulton County Sheriff, Ted Jackson. The latest meeting was held in February 2011 and hosted by Gwinnett County Sheriff, Butch Conway. The next meeting will be in April and hosted by the Rockdale County Sheriff, Jeff Wigington.

Mr. Kissel says “The vision of these meetings is to provide access to common mental health issues that most jail facilities are overwhelmingly facing. These meetings are proving to be an effective mechanism of providing the sheriff departments’ of some of Georgia’s largest jails additional resources to assist in the management of the mentally ill population, as well as reducing recidivism.”