The Impact of Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) Training on Law Enforcement Officers on Time and Disposition Responding to Mental Health Related Emergencies in Urban, Suburban, and Rural Communities

Law enforcement officers across the nation are frequently called upon to manage and resolve mental health related emergencies. Current research shows mental health training helps prepare officers to resolve these incidents in a safe and effective manner. This study is one of the very few studies on the topic of law enforcement response to mental health related emergencies with real police records. The findings for this study addressed some of the limitations of many previous researches, and provide empirical evidence on the specific effects of mental health training on law enforcement officers' behaviors. The findings of this study generally confirmed the hypothesis that PERT training had significant effect on police officer's time spent on mental health related emergencies, and the severity of dispositions they used. This study also provided for the first time the evidence that officers behave differently in different communities- urban, suburban and rural. It should be pointed out that officers in this study received 24 hours of mental health training, not the standard 40 hours that officers in other studies had received. In other words, the findings in this study indicate that 24 hours of training is sufficient to show significant differences in how law enforcement officers respond to mental health related emergencies.