Status
Conditions
Treatments
Study type
Funder types
Identifiers
About
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn the effect, or lack thereof, of the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training among police officers. The main questions it aims to answer are:
Participants will:
Researchers will compare police officers who were randomized to the control group with police officers who were randomized to the intervention group to see if receiving the CIT training make differences on the outcome measurements.
Full description
Individuals with serious mental illnesses (SMI), as well as those experiencing suicidality or psychiatric crisis encounter police officers frequently in the community. Almost a third of people with SMI have police involved in their pathway to mental health care. Although a variety of strategies to reduce law enforcement involvement in mental health crisis response are emerging, people with SMI and/or those in crisis will continue to encounter police when officers must serve as first responders, and importantly, during officers' routine patrol duties. As such, officers need training to safely and effectively interact in these situations. The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model is a collaborative approach that includes a 40-hour training of officers. CIT has been implemented in thousands of U.S. communities, and some agencies are now mandating all of their officers complete CIT training. Despite widespread support and growing research, a randomized, controlled trial (RCT) has never been conducted to assess the effectiveness of CIT training on officers' actual skills and behaviors. Prior research has relied on officers' self-report of their de-escalation skills and has not directly measured actual performance in a rigorous, standardized, controlled fashion. Furthermore, multi-site studies are lacking, and potential officer-level factors that may moderate CIT training outcomes have yet to be systematically assessed.
This study will partner with six sites across the country representing diverse geographic areas and constituency demographics. There are four Specific Aims of the study. First, the investigators will conduct a rigorous, multisite randomized controlled trial (RCT) of CIT mental health training. Each agency will provide 40 officers, for a total of 240. Among the 40 officers from each agency, half will be randomized to CIT training. Data will be collected using Standardized Scenarios, which will be rated centrally in a blinded fashion (blinded by site, study arm, and time). The primary outcome is actual verbal crisis de-escalation skills / non-verbal physical behavior. Second, the investigators will determine the impact of CIT training on two secondary outcomes: use of procedural justice and disposition-related decision-making.
Enrollment
Sex
Ages
Volunteers
Inclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria
Primary purpose
Allocation
Interventional model
Masking
240 participants in 2 patient groups
Loading...
Central trial contact
Michael T. Compton, MD, MPH
Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov
Clinical trials
Research sites
Resources
Legal