A mental health consultation program to the police

The growing interface between psychiatric staff and the police as a result of the latter's involvement with disturbed patients released into various communities has intensified the need for appropriate police orientation and desensitization to these patients. This article describes a program that grew out of the need of the police for involvement with psychiatric staff, once their resistance had been overcome. The use of videotapes and role playing diminished the anxiety of the police, allowed their better and more rational judgments to come forth when faced with such patients, and increased their empathy. Another goal of the program was to get the police to see that a more reflective and restrained approach to patients, as distinguished from an aggressive, action-oriented approach, was just as demanding of their professionalism and could be more effective and safer in the management of these patients.