OPP committed to mental-health training

Re Listen to this message, Editorial, Aug. 6 The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is implementing many of the recommendations stemming from independent reviews and coroner’s inquests referred to in this editorial.

The OPP has taken significant steps to increase de-escalation to improve consistency in how members respond to mental-health calls, and to advance the use of community mobilization and engagement models to support and assist people before a crisis occurs.

Although de-escalation skills training has been embedded within courses for years, in 2016, we introduced a new mandatory half-day session for all frontline uniformed members that included both in-class and scenario-based learning. In the first year of this initiative, the focus was on the foundations of deescalation, factors that influence deescalation and officer safety, and behavioural influences.

This year, all front-line uniformed officers will receive another half day of training focused on increasing knowledge of issues related to mental illness, developing communications strategies and skills to de-escalate situations and making tactical decisions that can help positively impact the encounter.

We are committed to de-escalation training and to community mobilization and engagement to address the needs of persons with mental illness in the communities we serve. While there is more to be done, important strides have been made. This is, in large part, due to our members’ genuine desire to improve dealings with those who are going through a mental-health crisis. J.V.N. (Vince) Hawkes, OPP commissioner