Courses:

Successful Encounters with the Mentally Ill

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Emotionally disturbed persons are a law enforcement problem. Law enforcement officers are sworn to protect and serve them, which sometimes means taking them into custody for their own protection. Law enforcement officers must also deal with people who are mentally ill who commit crimes, including bank robbery, arson, child abuse and attacks on peace officers. Law enforcement officers must learn how to win encounters with emotionally disturbed persons, which means ensuring that the subject is taken into custody safely.

Training Goals and Objectives

The goal of the training program is to prepare the sworn law enforcement to do the following: recognize the symptoms of different types of mental illness; learn guidelines for contact with mentally ill people; understand words and phrases and principles of active listening; familiarize with the “Suicide-by-Cop” phenomenon and its implications for law enforcement officers; properly document (report writing) encounters with mentally ill people; manage encounters with persons in a state of excited delirium or cocaine psychosis; identify the symptoms of a potential victim of sudden custody death syndrome; properly use the hobble restraint, an alternative to the dangerous “hog-tie” method

Training Audience, Format and Content

This course is intended for various levels of experienced sworn law enforcement officers and related personnel. The intent of the trainer is to provide survival tools and recognition techniques so that the student can effectively respond to the emotionally disturbed person’s needs, while providing information geared toward officer survival in these types of encounters.

This course is most successful when taught and received with audiences of 30 officers or fewer. Smaller groups enable officers to have more direct dialog with the instructor and other students, particularly during the practical evaluation (hands-on) process.

The course is designed as a two-day course.

3540 Crain Highway ¦ Suite 343 Bowie ¦ MARYLAND 20716 ¦ 1301-218-3986 ¦ USA