Police and protective service officers often find themselves in situations where they are responding to an individual who is, or appears to be, mentally ill. These interactions often lack understanding between both parties and require training to enhance positive outcomes. As such, a 3 unit system has been designed to actively educate officers on key skills needed when interacting with individuals
in crisis. Unit 1: eLearning (90 minute) - online training focusing on communication, empathy and de-escalation skills when interacting with individuals with mental health issues. Unit 2: Experiential (4 hour) - hands-on training interacting with professional actors in scenario based role-play
Unit 3: Advanced (40 hour) - for those who have extensive interactions with individuals who have, or may have, mental health issues, such as specialist groups or hostage negotiators. This training program stems from a program that was originally developed at the University of Alberta, Department of Psychiatry, to advance the mental health training of police officers. This program proved overwhelmingly successful, showing increases in police mental health awareness, communication, de-escalation and empathy skills as well as a 41% decrease in physical force occurrences, 26% decrease in weapon force, 41% increase in mental health awareness and a 19% increase in police efficiency. This system has been created with input from police officers & educators, psychiatrists, researchers, educators, eLearning experts & individuals with lived experiences from Canada, USA, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
