Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

Chapter 9. The Mental Health of Police Personnel
1. This chapter discusses the current state of mental health initiatives for members
of the Toronto Police Service, including the Service’s psychological wellness program, its
approach to critical incident response debriefings, the availability of peer support and
the steps taken to monitor officer mental health.
2. As one stakeholder has noted, when a police officer encounters a person in crisis,
everyone is in crisis—including the officer, who must overcome his or her own
physiological stress and fear in order to help and protect the person in crisis, while also
ensuring the public’s safety and his or her own safety.
3. To have the confidence, openness and empathy needed to engage calmly with a
person in crisis using the minimum force necessary, TPS officers must be mentally
healthy themselves. Yet a portion of TPS officers will inevitably experience mental
health issues. While estimates for the prevalence of mental illness in Canada vary as a
result of divergences in definitions and research methodology, it is indisputable that
mental health issues are common in Canadian society. 1 Police officers are no more
immune to such issues than others. Rather, because they must deal on a day-to-day
basis with some of the most saddening features of human nature, it appears that police
are more likely than the average person to experience mental health difficulties.
4. I have concluded that officer mental wellness is important to dealing effectively
with people in crisis and potentially reducing the number of violent confrontations. It is
best for all concerned if psychological wellness issues affecting police officers are
identified and treated before they affect an officer’s fitness for duty.
I. The Current Situation
A. The need to support officers’ psychological wellness
5. Exposure to trauma is an inherent feature of police work. While the mental
health effects of police work have not been comprehensively studied, existing data
suggest that they can be significant. One recent study found that police officers in
Canada “are exposed to a fairly unique set of stressors and face a different set of
challenges at work than most employees,” challenges which include the pressure to take
1
Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health estimates that in any given year, one in five Canadians experiences a mental
health or addiction problem. See Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, “Statistics on Mental Illness and Addictions” (2012),
online: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health . The Canadian Mental Health Association estimates that one in five Canadians will
experience a mental illness in their lifetime. See Canadian Mental Health Association, “Fast Facts about Mental Illness” (2014),
online: Canadian Mental Health Association . The Mental Health
Commission of Canada similarly estimates that in any given year, one in five people in Canada experiences a mental health
problem or illness. See Mental Health Commission of Canada, “The Facts” (2012), online: Mental Health Commission of Canada
. The Mood Disorders Society of Canada estimates that at any given time
10.4 percent of Canadians are living with a mental illness. See Mood Disorders Society of Canada, “Quick Facts: Mental illness and
addiction in Canada” (Nov. 2009), online: Mood Disorders Society of Canada .
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