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Encountering a person struggling with a serious emotional crisis is one of the most difficult - and increasingly frequent - jobs police officers face each day.
A handful of training programs, such as Question Persuade Refer and the Autism and Law Enforcement Education Coalition, help police sharpen their skills in dealing with profoundly troubled people.
“It has become increasingly a bigger part of what we do,” said Natick Police spokeswoman Lt. Cara Rossi.
Natick’s officers and town employees have completed the Question Persuade Refer training session that teaches them to recognize signs of those with mental illnesses. Officers earning a promotion also have to take a separate four-hour suicide prevention training course, said Rossi.
“This topic is often sought out by officers,” Rossi said of mental health training.
Rossi characterized that training as similar to CPR and first aid in that what they learn is frequently used.
“Anytime we give officers training we give them a tool,” she said.
On Wednesday, Officer Dylan Punch talked a distraught man out of jumping off the Speen Street bridge onto Rte. 9. Punch spoke to the man for four or five minutes before the man agreed to be taken to the hospital for evaluation.
“Whatever he had coupled with his personality and compassion really worked out in this instance,” said Rossi.
Framingham Police Chief Ken Ferguson described the partnership his department has with Advocates, a mental health and substance abuse prevention organization, as the best initiative in the department.
