Theses and Dissertations

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5697-0706

Advisor

Nadorff, Michael R

Committee Member

Berman, Mitchell

Committee Member

Stafford, Ty

Committee Member

McRaney, Kristy

Date of Degree

8-13-2024

Original embargo terms

Visible MSU Only 2 Years

Document Type

Dissertation - Campus Access Only

Major

Applied Psychology (Clinical Psychology)

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

People with mental illness (PMI) are at a 67% greater risk of arrest and 16 times greater risk of being killed during a police incident than other civilians. Indeed, law enforcement officers (LEOs) report lacking expertise when addressing mental health calls, and existing trainings aimed at reducing violence in LEO encounters with PMI do not account for challenges specific to rural LEOs. Additionally, many trainings are severely lacking in assessing outcome changes pre- and post-training with more than half of trainings relying on survey-based knowledge subject to social desirability bias and inaccurate self-assessment. This study aimed to address limitations in the research on de-escalation trainings by testing the efficacy of a one-hour deescalation training adapted from the Crisis Intervention Team training program for rural LEOs. Furthermore, this study aimed to establish initial evidence of validity and reliability in using standardized actor simulation as a behavioral measure for de-escalation training. Simulation-based education and assessment has been a mainstay of medical education for several decades and is used in medical school curricula worldwide. Results suggested that the one-hour curriculum offered several benefits for participants’ self-reported attitudes and behavioral application of de-escalation strategies. Results also suggested that simulation-based assessment is a reliable and valid measure of the application of de-escalation strategies. Such standardized actor simulations may pave the path for computer-based simulations, such as virtual reality (VR) simulations, with LEOs. This will represent a notable advance for rural police departments as VR is far more scalable and accessible than simulated actors. VR may provide the same evaluation and training benefits while reducing costs.

Download

Share

COinS