Ontario police officers are now required to complete new mental health crisis training and the curriculum was developed by a Wilfrid Laurier University reseracher.
The program is called the Mental Health Crisis Response (MHCR) Education and Applied Training program and it was created by Jennifer Lavoie, an associate professor of psychology and criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University. She designed the program to help officers better respond to the growing number of mental health calls.
"Since COVID, we've seen higher and higher rates of those calls coming in," Lavoie said, adding that this training is about "reducing the use of force in resolving escalated mental health crisis situations, where that's possible, and then responding in a more compassionate way"
Jennifer Lavoie, a criminologist at Wilfrid Laurier University, developed and helps trains police officers across the province in new mental health de-escalation training that's not mandatory for all sworn officers. (Jennifer Lavoie)
The training is done through online modules and with hands-on practice. Officers rehearse different scenarios where they work on communication strategies like the way they speak, their body language and de-escalation techniques.
Lavoie said a big part of the training is relayed through actors and virtual reality simulations.
"Often police are training with the same trainers and so they get to know them. But with actors, what's important is that they're embodying very authentic symptoms of mental health crisis," said Lavoie.
The virtual training allows officers to be immersed into a 360 degree virtual scenario of a situation requiring the MHCR training.
Timmins police officers were among some of the first to participate in the MHCR training. (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Lavoie says the program was developed with help from clinicians, frontline officers and from people with lived experience of mental illness. The goal is to give police the tools to recognize when someone is in crisis, something Lavoie said isn't always easy.
"New research tells us that officers sometimes have a difficult time identifying when a person is in mental health crisis," she said, adding that it's not about turning officers into "a clinician, but really just to know when it's time to adapt those strategies."
LISTEN | Ontario police to undergo mandatory mental health crisis training:
The Morning Edition - K-W 7:28 Ontario police to undergo mandatory mental health crisis training All sworn police officers in Ontario must now undergo mental health crisis training, developed by a researcher at Wilfrid Laurier University. Jennifer Lavoie talks about what’s in the curriculum and why it’s needed.
The training has been used at the Ontario Police College since 2023 and is now rolling out to every officer in the province.
Sgt. Daniel Vincelette with the Ottawa Police Service was one of the first to participate in the training. In a news release, he said the program is vital to the continued evolution of policing.
"I believe this program has the potential to make a real difference in frontline policing across Ontario," he said.
Paul Pedersen, executive director of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, supported the development of the training.
"MHCR is an excellent example of evidence-based, community-informed policing making a real difference for our officers and communities," he said in a news release.
He added the training will equip police across Ontario "with the skills they need to respond to mental health crises with empathy, professionalism and care. This initiative represents a major step forward in advancing both public safety and community trust."
Lavoie says researchers will be tracking the MHCR training's impact through officer and civilian safety, use-of-force incidents, as well as the level of community trust.
"First and foremost is always measuring," she said.
"We have built in an evaluation framework to make sure that we're seeing those improvements on the the front line in terms of the knowledge, skills and abilities."
[SRC] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/waterloo-mental-health-crisis-training-ontario-police-officers-1.7645130
