Mental Health Training for Police

In 2007, 1.25 million prison inmates with mental disorders were incarcerated, according to FBI statistics cited in "Time" magazine. Involuntary mental health commitments and situations involving emotionally disturbed people are among the most unpredictable calls for police officers. The individuals are often irrational, unstable and uncooperative as a result of their illness.

Training

• Police are trained to take control of crime scenes, but that can backfire

  Many U.S. police officers are not trained to deal with delicate, emotionally charged situations involving mentally unstable people. In fact, traditional police training and approaches can escalate tensions with a person experiencing a mental health crisis, according to the National Association on Mental Illness. Police are trained to take control of a crime scene quickly, but shouting orders and directions can heighten feelings of paranoia and defensiveness. People with mental disorders also may avoid eye contact, which police could interpret as suspicious.

Crisis Intervention

• The Memphis Police Department was the first to create a team of trained officers who respond to mental crisis calls as a result of a 1987 fatal police shooting of a mentally ill suspect. The jail diversion program is designed to improve police interactions involving people with mental or brain disorders. Since the crisis intervention model was adopted in 1988, the department has seen fewer mentally ill individuals in jail custody, drops in injuries among police officers and people with mental illness, and fewer involuntary commitments.

CIT Training

• Police taking CIT training role-play to help them better understand people with mental illness.

  In a crisis intervention team (CIT) program, police officer undergo 40 hours of intensive training involving mental health advocates, psychiatrists, families and people with mental illness who familiarize the officer with basic knowledge of mental illness, various symptoms, the mechanics of local mental health systems and de-escalation techniques. Officers also experience virtual simulations designed to replicate what a person in a mental health crisis might see or hear, and they engage in role-play scenarios.

De-escalating Crisis

• To descalate a crisis, approach a suspect slowly.

  In the CIT programs, police officers learn a number of de-escalation techniques, including:
  Speak more softly
  Approach the person slowly
  Avoid arguing
  Repeat phrases
  Show hands, rather than a gun or badge
  Dress in plain clothes rather that street uniforms.

Training Expanding

• More than 50 communities nationwide have trained a crisis intervention team. According to a 2009 National Public Radio story, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law says there are about 200 or 300 U.S. police departments with active mental health awareness training programs.

Additional Issues

• Many mentally ill patients with whom the police deal have stopped taking medications, aren't following treatment plans or miss psychiatrist appointments, resulting in reality break. Adding to the problem is a lack of long-term residential care for people with mental illness and a lack of community resources for patients and their families.

Promise of CIT

• "CIT is considered by many to be the most rapidly expanding and promising partnership between law enforcement and mental health professionals, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance estimates that there are more than 400 CIT programs operating in the United States," according to the Bureau of Justice Assistance.