Last Thursday, police responded to a call from a distressed mother who was concerned about her son Joe, 25, an Iraq war veteran who had been home for a month but hadn’t left his room in the basement.

The mother told officers she was concerned because her son wasn’t eating or sleeping, didn’t have a job, wasn’t talking to anyone and hadn’t spent time with family or friends. His wife asked him to move out of their house, and the mother felt he had been hiding out in her basement.

Before talking with Joe, officers made sure there were no weapons in the house. After learning his mother called police, Joe became upset and started yelling at her. She was quickly removed from the scene so officers could talk with Joe, who was sitting in the corner of the basement drinking a beer.

The lead officer attempted to establish a connection with Joe by thanking him for his service to his country and asking him what was going on. Officers learned that Joe was upset because he lost some good friends while serving in Iraq and he wasn’t being treated well upon returning home.

Joe told officers he had been eating MREs because he preferred them to his mother’s cooking. He questioned how officers could relate to him if they hadn’t served in the military like he did. He said his mother was worried about him because he didn’t have a job and she wanted money from him.

The lead officer asked Joe if he would be willing to get help and talk to someone. Joe said he didn’t like group therapy and wasn’t comfortable sharing his feelings in front of others. The officer then asked about talking to someone one-on-one and told Joe a rescue was waiting down the block to take him to the hospital to talk to someone. Joe asked if he could talk with a veteran, someone that could relate to him. The officer said while he couldn’t promise Joe would talk to a veteran, he could recommend it if that’s what he wanted. Joe eventually agreed to go with the officers.

Crises Responder Training Program

The above is just one of several role-playing scenarios participants underwent as part of the three-day Crisis Responder Training (CRT) program held at New England Tech last week. The program involved officers, detectives and other police department personnel.

According to a registration announcement for the training, “The goal of this three-day program is for law enforcement officers to develop the skills necessary to effectively handle encounters with individuals with mental illness who are in crisis.”

Training topics include identifying types of mental illness and their treatments, effective communication techniques, use-of-force issues, best-practice in law enforcement response involving psychiatric crisis, proper documentation, facilitating working relationships with community mental health organizations, and resources available.

The program was established in 2007. It is sponsored and coordinated by the Rhode Island Council of Community Mental Health Organizations, and is made possible through funding provided by the State of Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) through a state behavioral health-training grant that is between $6,000 and $10,000 each year.

The training is offered free of charge annually to all state law enforcement agencies. To date, 133 officers from the majority of departments around the state have been trained.

“A key component of this training initiative, which allows for the sustainability of the program, is the certification of these officers as trainers of the material, both for their own and other police departments, as well as in their communities,” Deb Harig, director of training and communications at the RI Council of Community Mental Health Organizations Inc., said in an email to the Beacon.

The program is due in part to the partnership and collaboration between Robin Winslow, a retired police lieutenant from the Coventry Police Department, and Richard Crino, RN, CTR, vice president of acute services at NRI Community Services Inc., a multi-service non-profit health and human services agency serving parts of Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. NRI Community Services has since partnered with Family Resources Community Action to form the Community Care Alliance.

Crino and Winslow are two of the head trainers that helped develop the program in 2007.

“I started peer support work with Richard in 1995 and we realized there was a void in this area,” Winslow said of crisis response training.

Crino, a military veteran and published author whose most recent book, “Finding Common Ground,” provides “A to Z on what officers will experience with someone who is mentally ill,” said he’s been working with police departments for 15 years.

“We started doing crisis response training in four-hour blocks after the Station nightclub fire,” he said. “Many of the officers we worked with then trained their peers to help fellow officers get help. We attacked it from that angle first.”

Crino said the four-hour training blocks were with individual police departments targeting 10, 15 or 20 officers at a time.

“The CRT program was developed in 2007, with the first graduating class in 2008,” he said.

Crino said there were three deadly force encounters with the mentally ill in 2008, but there’s been a drop in that statistic.

“With better skills, we’ve had good outcome after good outcome,” he said. “When you give police the tools, they’re excellent at deflating crises.”

Mike Villiard, a member of the Woonsocket Police Department, was one of the graduates of the first class and is now a trainer in the CRT program.

“It was very good because I had never experienced that type of training before,” Villiard said. “It opened our eyes. We encounter this on a daily basis in Woonsocket, so it’s a benefit to bring this training back to our officers and we now handle these calls differently. It’s a positive program.”

Villiard said being able to step back, listen to the client and walk in their shoes to see things from their perspective helps with techniques and de-escalation.

“It relaxes people and slows the situation down when you put yourself in their place,” he said.

Role Play Critique

Warwick Police Capt. Joseph Coffey was helping train officers on Thursday and served as Joe in the aforementioned role-playing scenario. Following the scenario, he critiqued the officers on how they did.

“You kept a good distance and your tone was good. Your eye contact was exceptional. I threw some stuff at you and you let me talk. Even though you weren’t a veteran, you smiled and that can go a long way,” he said. “I got a sense of trust from you. Your focus was to get me help and you stayed on that. I didn’t make it easy for you; your patience was good and you didn’t rush.”

Coffey also told the lead officer that he was careful about what he said and didn’t make any promises or guarantees, but said it wouldn’t hurt to have the other officers say something, such as introduce themselves, and to also follow up with the family or whoever made the call to see if they need anything else and if they’re doing OK.

“Know what services are available and the criteria of resources,” Coffey continued. “Don’t focus on the immediate problem, but rather the underlying issue.”

Coffey said 99.9 percent of the time, officers will be able to convince the client to leave with them in a similar situation.

“Based on what you saw, there wasn’t enough to legally take him away,” he said. “If there’s a gray area, start asking pointed questions to illicit the responses you need to know.”

Following the role-playing scenario critique, Coffey said programs like the CRT program are quite valuable.

“Every officer faces mental illness [situations] on the streets,” he said. “One in four adults experiences a mental health crisis in a year. Officers are seeing it; this training can be applied anytime.”

Coffey said 10 percent of calls in Warwick are for mental health-related issues.

“Synthetic drugs, substance use, overdoses,” he said, adding that the economic factor is a big reason why. “Is there enough funding for the recovery side? Other people are involved in this process. There was an $18 million cut from the mental health budget, which means programs.”

Coffey said because it takes a partnership between police departments and others in the community, such as mental health centers, it’s nice to partner with those centers to make the training program happen and be effective.

“We try to involve clinicians. It’s a collaboration; we’re all in this together,” he said. “People rely on us, but we rely on clinicians, medical staff and the recovery community.”

Coffey said the feedback from the clinical side has been positive because they have noticed a difference in how officers are handling these situations once they have a better understanding of how to deal with them.

Warwick Involvement

Coffey said Warwick has been involved from the start with crises response training and has been doing it for 10 years.

“We have a Mental Health First Aid Law Enforcement program that involves eight hours of training,” he said. “The academy offers an in-service training program four times a year in an elective capacity.”

Four members of the Warwick Police Department took part in the CRT program at New England Tech last week, and a total of 18 have graduated from the program.

“We’re looking at getting more officers with this advanced training, and they’re volunteering, so the interest is already there,” he said. “This, by far, is an enhancement of what they get at the academy.”

Coffey said the training is evolving due to the need and desire of the officers using it. He added that officers would be able to apply what they’ve learned right away.

“Ninety-nine percent of people dealing with mental health issues are people just trying to cope in society,” he said. “We won’t turn our backs on a subset of the population that may rely on us or need us more than others.”

Harig said this year’s program is the sixth class, with 27 officers representing 20 departments throughout the state participating.

“Clearly there’s a need for this program,” she said.

Harig said New England Tech has been a great partner, allowing instructors to use the facilities in the Criminal Justice Department to carry out role-play scenarios.

“This is the perfect setup for us,” she said.

Crino said each session has between 20 and 30 participants each year. Beyond the CRT program, Crino said he and Winslow have trained an additional 400 officers in the smaller group sessions at individual departments.

Officers must complete a written exam and attain a passing grade, and also complete several scenario-based role-plays.

Extended Training

Participants that wish to extend their training and become certified as a Crisis Responder Trainer (CCRT), which would enable them to train their colleagues, will be able to attend a separate, mandatory, one-day training approximately one month after the CRT program. The CCRT session will cover adult learning and education methods, as well as feature a teach-back component.

In addition to completing the four days of training, participants must have a minimum of three years of employment as a sworn officer and will need to complete 20 hours of relevant study or relay a relevant “life experience” involving an individual with mental illness. Forty-six of the officers trained through the CRT program have earned the CCRT designation.