A new course teaches Ontario police recruits how to defuse a mental health crisis

Ontario now offers an 18-hour course that teaches police recruits how to deal with people suffering from a mental health crisis, marking the first time such training has been offered to the province's law enforcement cadets.

The three-day training session was introduced last week by the Ontario Police College in Aylmer, provincial officials told CBC News.  

The new course underscores the dual role of Ontario officers, who function as both law enforcement officials and social worker, in a province grappling with ways to minimize deadly police shootings and beatings in emergency calls involving people experiencing mental health issues . 

The course was designed as a direct response to the 2018 Iacobucci Report, drafted in the wake of the 2013 police shooting death of Sammy Yatim, a teenager who was killed aboard a Toronto streetcar while in a mental health crisis.

Course emphasizes patience, listening, trust

The course pulls on a combination of years of research, key recommendations from coroner's inquests as well as community consultations, according to Jennifer Lavoie, an associate professor of psychology and criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University and co-lead of the mental health crisis response training program.

"This has been developed by a very large team. I think that's what makes it different from what we've seen before," she said.

Lavoie said the course stresses a trauma-informed approach that focuses on using the power of connection to build trust, something law enforcement refers to as "relational policing." 

"It's basically the idea that the outcome of the police interaction is not as important as how the interaction unfolds. The citizen wants to feel that the officer listened to their side of the story, that they participated, that they had voice, that they were treated fairly and the officer had trustworthy notions around the person's well-being."

Lavoie said the course is hands-on and involves scenario-based training where students role play their way through mental health crisis situations mounted onto a virtual reality platform, where actors provided "authentic portrayals" of people in emotional distress. 

"We have the students watch a scenario play out that's based on an inquest that is not optimal. It results in perhaps a use of force by the officer."

The students then deconstruct what happened and generate alternate solutions before they themselves get to strap on a headset and apply the techniques in a simulation. 

Lavoie said the simulations vary in length and depth, and allow officers to practise skills such as active listening, validation, patience and building trust.

"You're really learning how to understand the needs of this person, bringing in additional units as required and keeping this person safe." 

Critics say 18 hours isn't enough

At the end of the three days, Lavoie said, students are evaluated in a scenario that tests them on 14 points, all designed to measure how they de-escalate the crisis.

The emphasis on patience, listening and validating people's emotions marks a departure from the traditional model of policing in Ontario that, for decades, saw officers as little more than impersonal and reactive enforcers of the law.

Critics have pointed out the 18-hour course isn't nearly enough and that officers, who are the first to respond in a mental health emergency, do not adequately address the reality officers face on the front line of a dual opioid and homelessness crisis that involves people with severe mental illness. 

In response to the criticism, Lavoie said, the course might be a first step, but is one based on years of research. 

"In our case, a lot of this work is based on evidence," she said. "It doesn't matter how much time you put in on a program. It only matters if it works."