Five mental-health agencies get grants for crisis teams

Henrico County and Richmond will benefit from grants announced yesterday directed at training police officers to better handle mentally ill patients.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said the grants will benefit both officers and mentally ill members of the public in confrontational situations that too often result in injuries and unnecessary criminal arrests.

A mental-health advocacy group, meanwhile, is planning to present a petition to the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors next week pleading for the creation of crisis intervention teams in the wake of the shooting death of a man last month.

On April 25, Chesterfield police responding to a 911 call shot and killed mentally ill Robert "Bo" Hansen Jr., 31. Hansen had been involved in a brief fight with his father.

The family has said that police overreacted and mishandled a situation that could have de-escalated if officers had received crisis intervention training. Hansen, who weighed more than 300 pounds, was attacking one of the officers when he was shot.

Chesterfield police are investigating the incident but have released no findings.

Family Advocacy Creating Education and Services will present the petition Wednesday.

Kaine said the grants will provide $49,590 to Henrico Area Mental Health and Retardation Services and $50,163 to the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority.

About $100,000 more will be split among mental-health agencies in Chesapeake, Staunton and Alexandria.

One objective is to provide training to at least 25 percent of each locality's police patrol force.

The $400,000 in grants will support training efforts for the next two years. Crisis intervention training projects were pioneered in western Virginia almost a decade ago and generally are patterned after a program started in 1998 in Memphis.

The General Assembly appropriated the money for the grants earlier this year.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or .