A trans-disciplinary approach to assessing police responses to mental heath crisis: development of the de-escalating persons in crisis competencies tool (DePICT)

Abstract

Introduction: Police interactions with individuals experiencing mental health crises are complex and can potentially involve safety risks. There are longstanding calls for enhanced training in deploying de-escalation strategies to reduce police use of force specifically in situations involving people in mental health crises. Given the absence of an existing protocol to evaluate de-escalation competencies specific to the realm of police mental health crisis intervention, the objective of this research was to develop and validate such a tool. Methods: Development of the framework emphasized a police and community co-design approach in which the identification of core competencies was driven by stakeholder focus groups, literature reviews, and best practices in adult-based education and experiential learning models. The tool was tested and modified using live-action simulations in which police officers were instructed to respond to five unique high-intensity mental health crisis scenarios. Internal consistency, interrater reliability, and concurrent validity were examined in a series of validation studies. Results: The resultant framework, the De-escalating Persons in Crisis Competencies Tool (DePICT™), is a 14-item rater-observer competency-based assessment designed to systematically measure a trainee's demonstrated ability to safely de-escalate and respond to a person in mental health crisis using relational policing approaches. Discussion: To better meet rising mental health crisis calls, police organizations have begun to deliver specialized training to enhance the abilities of frontline officers to recognize mental health problems and safely de-escalate crises. The DePICT™ is a reliable and valid competency-based assessment tool that, when used together in scenario training applications, contributes to the measurement, training, and acquisition of essential knowledge, skills and abilities expected of modern police officers and prepares them for real-world job demands.