Police Response to Persons Affected By Mental Illness: The One Mind Campaign

One Mind Campaign

The Duxbury Police Department is pleased to announce that we have completed a pledge taken to improve our response to those suffering from mental illness in our community. The pledge is part of an initiative called the One Mind Campaign started by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), a 30,000 member professional association for law enforcement that provides training, technical assistance, and recruitment services. To join the One Mind Campaign, law enforcement agencies must pledge to implement four promising practices in a 12-36 month period to ensure successful future interactions between police officers and persons with mental illness.

In the law enforcement community, mental illness has become a common focus, with some departments estimating that as many as 20% of their calls for service are related to mental health declines. As Chief of the Duxbury Police Department, I made the decision to join the IACP’s One Mind Campaign because our department had previously made the commitment to the Crisis Intervention model in active participation with local behavioral health coalitions.  The One Mind Campaign was consistent with this community policing philosophy and so it was a no-brainer for us to participate.

In completing the One Mind Pledge, the Duxbury Police Department established a sustainable partnership with a local mental health organization, developed and implemented a model policy to address officers’ interactions with those affected by mental illness, and ensured that all of our officers received some type of mental health awareness training, with at least 20% of the department completing the more intensive Crisis Intervention Training. The 24-hour Crisis Intervention curriculum is designed by local agencies to train a team of specialized officers to respond to calls that involve individuals with mental health disorders such as depression or intellectual disability. The curriculum includes education on various de-escalation techniques as well as live role-play scenarios of officers responding to persons who need mental health assistance.

The greatest benefit in adopting all the strategies of the One Mind Campaign pledge has been the educational component provided for the officers.  This training provides the officers with a far greater understanding of the complexities of the mental health issues within their community and effective new strategies to provide positive outcomes.

For more information about the One Mind Campaign, please visit the IACP’s website: http://www.theiacp.org/onemindcampaign/.