Crisis Intervention in Policing remains an emotive and important topic. A 2018 Home Office Police Front Line Review found that “the desire for officers to receive better training in dealing with members of the public with mental health issues was repeatedly mentioned.”
I spoke with veteran police trainer Gary Klugiewicz some time ago about how we help police officers — and other contact professionals — to develop confidence when helping someone going through an emotional disturbance. Here is an excerpt from that conversation.
One of the reports that came out recently said that when it comes to Crisis Intervention in Policing — officers dealing with people who are having an emotionally disturbed moment or people with mental ill health — the police officers dealing with them lack confidence.
I wanted to ask you about this: how do we develop confidence in contact professionals to deal with people who are emotionally disturbed? I know you have a lot of experience from when you were running the mental health facility in Wisconsin. Could you talk about confidence and how we build it?
Well, first of all, let me share with you that at points in your life, everyone is mentally ill. We have long-term mental illness, we have brain-based disorders, we have people who are on drugs and alcohol or the aftermath, or we have people just in crisis now — and sometimes all three together. So all of us have to learn to deal with people who have mental health issues, at least for the moment.
We have a programme called PICI — Point of Impact, Crisis Intervention. When we encounter this person for the first time, we’re not going to know all the things that are affecting them. In fact, six months later you’re going to have five psychiatrists making a decision, three-to-two, of what they think the person’s diagnosis is.
When it comes to Crisis Intervention in Policing, we have about three seconds to figure it out. And how you get confidence to do that is through building competence.
💡 Key insight: You have to get comfortable doing this by doing the fire drills — by working with it, and by gaining more confidence. We talk about that when you walk into the room to have an interaction with this emotionally disturbed person, there’s going to be one of three signs over their head: less than (passive), equal to (assertive), or greater than (aggressive).
One of the best ways that you can display better confidence is to look more confident. And you can practise doing that — by standing up straight, maintaining good eye contact, presenting a good stance in engaging them, and by practising talking when you’re a little bit stressed out so you don’t ever sound freaked out, regardless of what is happening in front of you.
Those are things you can do to get more competence in Crisis Intervention in Policing. And it’s a matter of practice. Think back to the first time you went to a CPR class. You might have done the compressions, but it was very awkward. Now if you go back to do it again, it’s a piece of cake — and you can add more and more stressors. That’s what we have to do with verbal skills. We have to build the skills.
Another analogy: it’s like learning to shoot. First time we shoot, we have a hard time hitting our target. Then we have to shoot on the move, shoot in low light, shoot in different positions. That’s all part of gaining competence. And the more competence you have, the more confidence you’re going to have.
Absolutely. I know from my own experience of teaching Vistelar Conflict Management and Crisis Intervention in Policing here in the UK.
One specific comment that relates to this issue about practice and competence: I went into the classroom on the second day of one of my courses, and an experienced social worker who works with children with emotional behavioural difficulties said something that stuck with me:
“This course is very different to anything we’ve done before. Usually what the trainer does is come in and give us fantastic ideas about transactional analysis and parent-child modalities and lots of theory about how people should interact. But then they tell us to go back into practice and take all this theory and make it work for ourselves.”
She said the difference with our Vistelar Conflict Management training was that I was giving them specific templates to work on — and then giving them the time and the space to go and practise it right then and there. To actually move the muscles of their mouth — the psychomotor skill — and make sure they got some practice before standing in front of an upset, distressed, frustrated or angry person.
They really valued that difference. But of course, it’s really the bread and butter of what we do, isn’t it, Gary?
Well, absolutely. I mean it’s amazing. We have what we call the Blue Card — the communication under pressure card. These are the ten things we teach you: how to do the components of Crisis Intervention in Policing, or any other setting. On the back are the tactics — and we show you how to use them. We have our learners practise them, and we give you the card to take back into your workplace and actually do it.
A lot of training content says “you should be nice to people who aren’t being nice to you” and “you should act professionally” — but they don’t show you how to do it. We are the how.
💡 Key takeaway: We show you how to do it, show you how to practise, and you can go home right that day and practise how to be effective in Crisis Intervention in Policing scenarios — or any others.
To learn more about our evidence-based approach to conflict management, crisis intervention, and personal safety training, visit www.dynamis.training/conflict-management.
This article on conflict management and personal safety is part of our ongoing work supporting schools, academies, and public-sector organisations across the UK.
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