Abstract
Police and law enforcement providers frequently come into contact with individuals who have psychiatric disorders, sometimes with tragic results. Repeated studies suggest that greater understanding of psychiatric conditions by police officers would be beneficial. Here we present a novel approach to training police officers to improve their interactions with those who might have a mental illness. This approach involved developing a carefully scripted role-play training, which involved police officers (n = 663) interacting with highly trained actors during six realistic scenarios. The primary goal of the training was to improve empathy, communication skills, and the ability of officers to de-escalate potentially difficult situations. Uniquely, feedback was given to officers after each scenario by several individuals including experienced police officers, a mental health professional, and by the actors involved (with insights such as “this is how you made me feel”). Results showed that there were no changes in attitudes of the police toward the mentally ill comparing data at baseline and at 6 months after the training in those who completed both ratings (n = 170). In contrast, there were significant improvements in directly measured behaviors (n = 142) as well as in indirect measurements of behavior throughout the police force. Thus, compared to previous years, there was a significant increase in the recognition of mental health issues as a reason for a call (40%), improved efficiency in dealing with mental health issues, and a decrease in weapon or physical interactions with mentally ill individuals. The training cost was $120 per officer but led to significant cost savings (more than $80,000) in the following 6 months. In conclusion, this novel 1-day training course significantly changed behavior of police officers in meaningful ways and also led to cost savings. We propose that this training model could be adopted by other police agencies.
Highlights
Mental illness is increasing in Canada globally with depression classified as the leading cause of disability worldwide (World Health Organization, 2012)
The six scenarios that were used in the training program represented the following: a depressed individual who may have taken an overdose; a depressed individual who was very belligerent and potentially violent with a weapon nearby; a psychotic individual who was experiencing hallucinations; an individual with presumed alcohol dependence found collapsing on a public street; an individual with excitement acting strangely on a public street; and a couple who were arguing about the man’s gambling addiction but which represented other aspects of typical domestic disputes that police officers are called to
A total of 663 police officers participated in the mental health training, of whom 312 completed baseline assessments and 372 completed assessments 6-months post-training
Summary
Mental illness is increasing in Canada globally with depression classified as the leading cause of disability worldwide (World Health Organization, 2012). We present a novel approach to training police officers to improve their interactions with those who might have a mental illness.
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