Mentally Healthy Police

 

 

 

 

Key training/education recommendations include:

• That police learning be designed and delivered by a combination of police personnel, adult educators, mental health professionals, mental health advocacy organizations and people living with mental illness.
• More uniform inclusion of non-physical interventions (verbal communications, interpersonal skills, de-escalation, defusing and calming techniques) in use-of-force training.
• The incorporation of anti-stigma education to challenge the attitudinal barriers that lead to discriminatory action.
• That provincial governments establish policing standards that include provisionsfor mandatory basic and periodic police training qualification/requalification for interactions with people with mental illness.
• Provision of training on the role of police, mental health professionals, family and community supports in encounters with persons with mental illness.
• That training provides a better understanding of the symptoms of mental illness and the ability to assess the influence a mental illness might be having on a person's behaviour and comprehension. 

I'm certainly not going to disagree with that.  In fact, I rather like how their thought-train is progressing.