Attitudinal Change of officers that are Crisis Intervention Trained. A workplace Project

Attitudinal Change of officers that are Crisis Intervention Trained. A workplace Project

Mental health incidences increase every year, impacting the resources of emergency services, including police and paramedics, who respond to calls for service. These issues in the community are left to police and ambulance to respond to as they are the only services that operates 24 hours per day. Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Training was an initiative introduced in Memphis, USA to provide police with a better understanding of mental health issues and alternate pathways for those in crisis to relieve overcrowded hospitals and treatment facilities. There is limited research on how the CIT training has affected the attitude of police when dealing with mental health. Eight serving police officers from North Queensland participated in semi-structured interviews providing qualitative data that was analysed using thematic analysis. Participants agreed that CIT training increased their knowledge and skills to respond to mental illness and had a positive effect on their attitude towards these issues. All eight participants strongly agreed that the CIT training should be continued within the Qld Police Service and include all front-line police officers. The primary aim is to provide evidence that there are significant benefits to the QPS in developing a framework to analyse critical policing incidents.