Mental Health Crisis Response Applied Training and Education Program

The MHCR features:

• An evidence-based curriculum that has been created through multiple years of scientific research and development, as well as testing and validation. Study results to date have clearly demonstrated improved outcomes in police officers’ de-escalation skills, confidence, empathy, and reduced bias toward people with mental health and substance use problems upon program completion.
• A comprehensive training and education package that is easily accessible through a hybrid model consisting of a foundational online curriculum, active scenario-based learning in classroom contexts and assessment scenarios. This format brings together optimal forms of scenario-based training and adult learning through applied, observational, and group problem-solving methods.
• A design model based on iterative user testing across Ontario police services. All training scenarios are fully immersive, based on actual encounters between police and individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. These scenarios are designed to prepare officers for what they will actually encounter in the field.

The program is guided by the DePICT™ model, a built-in and validated assessment tool that measures de-escalation competencies specific to policing and highlights targeted skills integral to working with people in crisis. Trainers assess and evaluate trainees through a comparative analysis of pre- and post-scenario training competencies while providing a guide for targeted debriefing to support formative learning, reinforce de-escalation techniques, and identify specific areas to focus on for continued skills development.

The MHCR evolved through a community co-design framework. This approach is characterized by a working relationship between professionals and citizens, where each party plays a pivotal role in informing best practices to improve the quality of life for people and communities (Slay & Stephens, 2013). Collaboration cannot be understated with respect to mental health and substance use crises, given that these particular concerns exceed the capacity of any singular discipline and are community-based issues.

As such, the MHCR was created by a trans-disciplinary team of over 40 individuals including:

• persons with lived experience
• mental health professionals, including clinicians, nurses, mobile crisis response team members, and forensic psychologists
• researchers, academics, students and simulation experts
• Indigenous cultural safety and anti-discrimination experts
• defensive tactics and use of force trainers, and members of the Ministry of the Solicitor General’s ETT Community of Practice

Consequently, the program focuses on the relational policing approach, which emphasizes a genuine and personalized response.

Relational policing is:

• humanized
• person-centred
• procedural justice
• empathy
• trauma-informed
• mental health and crisis awareness
• cultural safety

The MHCR is a homegrown curriculum that is culturally, geographically, and jurisdictionally relevant to the needs of Ontario citizens and police officers. The program offers a rigorous response and demonstrates a commitment to addressing the recommendations made in the Ontario Ombudsman’s (2016) report “A Matter of Life and Death: Investigation into the Direction Provided by the Ministry of the Solicitor General to Ontario’s Police Services for De-escalation of Conflict Situations.”

This domestic approach to crisis de-escalation is particularly important given the unique landscape of policing and mental health in Canada. As a community-designed curriculum, the MHCR reflects local training priorities, protocols, vocabulary, and province-wide stakeholder investment. It emphasizes relational policing, an award winning framework centred on officers offering a genuine and personalized response to people in crisis, conveying empathy and concern for wellbeing, and taking the necessary time to cultivate a connection and build trust while managing safety risks.

A hallmark of this approach is encouraging the person in crisis to collaborate on ways to peacefully resolve the situation together with the officer. Relational policing is multifaceted in its approach and includes humanized, person-centred, procedurally just, empathetic, informed, and culturally safe modes of engagement (Lavoie et al., 2022).