Beyond crisis intervention team (CIT) classroom training: Videoconference continuing education for law enforcement

Evaluation of Ongoing Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Training for Law Enforcement Using the ECHO Model

Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training aims to improve law enforcement officers' (LEOs) ability to safely intervene in calls for service involving individuals with mental illness, as well as to increase LEOs' ability to link these individuals to mental health services and divert them from the criminal justice system. However, most CIT training is delivered as a stand-alone class, and continuing education in CIT principles and best practices is limited. To address this problem, the Albuquerque Police Department, in partnership with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of New Mexico, developed CIT ECHO to provide continuing education in CIT best practices. The authors evaluated 113 weekly CIT ECHO sessions targeting LEOs in New Mexico, offered between 2017 and 2020. LEOs electronically completed a post-session survey after each didactic; additionally, a targeted follow-up survey was distributed to LEOs participating in at least three sessions. Surveys measured impact of CIT ECHO on knowledge, self-efficacy, and attitudes towards individuals with mental illness involved in the criminal justice system. After participating in CIT ECHO, LEOs reported increases in knowledge of didactic content and that they felt comfortable applying didactic content on the job. LEOs also evidenced positive attitudinal shifts towards individuals with mental illness and criminal justice involvement. Continuing education in CIT best practices appears to increase LEOs' knowledge base and comfort in working with individuals with mental illness and criminal justice involvement, as well as results in positive attitudinal shifts towards this population.

Remote training as a common tool for the different professionals involved in the acute phase after terror attacks across Europe: Perspectives from an expert panel

The acute response after a terror attack may have a crucial impact on the physical and psychological wellbeing of the victims. Preparedness of the professionals involved in the acute response is a key element to ensure effective interventions, and can be improved through trainings. Today in Europe there is a recognized lack of inter-professional and international trainings, which are important, among others, to respond to the needs and the rights of victims affected by a terrorist attack in another country than their home country. In this paper we report the perspectives of an expert panel composed by different categories of professionals on the possible role of interprofessional trainings provided remotely. The experts discussed the pertinence of remote trainings for professionals involved in the acute response of a terror attack, and highlighted their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT analysis). We concluded that, while remote trainings cannot replace in-person trainings, they may be useful to share knowledge about the role and the organization of the different categories of professionals, thus potentially improving response coordination, and to easily share good practices across professionals and countries.

Increasing Mental Health Literacy in Law Enforcement to Improve Best Practices in Policing-Introduction of an Empirically Derived, Modular, Differentiated, and End-User Driven Training Design

Objective: Law enforcement officers often have contact to persons who show symptoms of mental disorders. Adequately designed training is necessary for developing the best possible practices in policing when coming into contact with mentally ill people, and may help to expand their general knowledge on mental disorders. To achieve a sustainable implementation of training content in daily policing work, the acceptance and proactive integration of methods by the training participants is essential. Method: This study investigates an exemplary modular training curriculum based on a survey with 2,228 German police officers (28.2% female, 71.8% male) concerning their needs and challenges when coming into contact with persons with mental disorders. This empirical end-user driven approach was used to adapt existing training concepts to the current needs and interests of law enforcement personnel in order to maximize compliance. Results: The training program draft includes basic modules which are intended to be of direct interest to all police officers, such as mental disorders with high policing relevance, encountering suicidal patients, (non-directive) communication and de-escalation skills, and mental hygiene in policing. They are arranged in more specialized modules that address specific target group audiences within police forces and the training curriculum provides information about genuine risks and self-protection, trauma sensitivity, and interaction with children and victims among other contents. The self-selectable, modular, and empirically-based continued training program also includes an introduction to local mental health service professionals and networks, trialogue sequences, and situational role play scenarios. Conclusion: Due to frequent contact law enforcement officers have to mentally ill people, improved training designed to maximize knowledge and the integration of trained methods is necessary. Gaining acceptance and proactive support by trainees is ensured through end-user driven implementation of specialized and differentiated up-to-date training programs. Our results showcase how police officers' perspectives on persons with mental illnesses is a main aspect that can and should be used to encourage training course designs.

Innovative COVID-19 Programs to Rapidly Serve New Mexico : Project ECHO

Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) at the University of New Mexico is a telementoring program that uses videoconferencing technology to connect health care providers in underserved communities with subject matter experts. In March 2020, Project ECHO created 10 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) telementoring programs to meet the public health needs of clinicians and teachers living in underserved rural and urban regions of New Mexico. The newly created COVID-19 programs include 7 weekly sessions (Community Health Worker [in English and Spanish], Critical Care, Education, First-Responder Resiliency, Infectious Disease Office Hours, and Multi-specialty) and 3 one-day special sessions. We calculated the total number of attendees, along with the range and standard deviation, per session by program. Certain programs (Critical Care, Infectious Disease Office Hours, Multi-specialty) recorded the profession of attendees when available. The Project ECHO research team collected COVID-19 infection data by county from March 11 through May 31, 2020. During that same period, 9765 health care and general education professionals participated in the COVID-19 programs, and participants from 31 of 35 (89%) counties in New Mexico attended the sessions. Our initial evaluation of these programs demonstrates that an interprofessional clinician group and teachers used the Project ECHO network to build a community of practice and social network while meeting their educational and professional needs. Because of Project ECHO's large reach, the results of the New Mexico COVID-19 response suggest that the rapid use of ECHO telementoring could be used for other urgent national public health problems.