Be Part of the Action: Session to Simulate How MH Crises Can Be Defused

Whether it’s a natural disaster, an active shooter, or a suicide on a college campus, a crisis situation will impact many psychiatrists during their career.

At this year’s Annual Meeting in San Diego, APA will host a special session that will bring participants to the front lines of a crisis and discuss how mental health professionals and first responders can better work together in such events. The session is titled “Crisis Lab Simulations Exercise.”

An inspiration for this session is San Diego’s Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT), which pairs licensed mental health professionals with specially trained police officers on their shifts (there is also a pilot program where mental health professionals ride with emergency medical technicians) to serve as first responders when a mental health–related law enforcement problem arises.

“What makes this program special is that it takes two distinct silos, mental health intervention and officer safety, and merges them into one unit,” said PERT director Mark Marvin, Ph.D., who will be one of the session panelists.

Marvin told Psychiatric News that having PERTs enables more avenues of triage; for example, the person in crisis can be taken directly to the emergency room or a psychiatric hospital if needed. This enables more efficient and more humane resolutions.

David Hathcox

Presenters will provide an overview of the PERT model as an example of how psychiatrists and law enforcement can successfully engage one another, and Marvin believes that by the end of the session, the audience will gain a better understanding and appreciation of the difficult jobs facing law enforcement personnel. The Crisis Lab will also touch on other elements related to crisis response, including stigma and police training.

After the didactic presentation, participants will be divided into small groups in which attendees can experience firsthand what crisis teams often deal with. For example, participants can take part in mock media interviews with communications professionals to learn how to develop clear messages and avoid language that might fan the flames of stigma. Attendees can also team up with police officers and role-play crisis scenarios.

Finally, this session will feature a virtual reality booth that will simulate an unfolding crisis and place participants in the role of first responders. This simulator was developed as a training tool for police in the use of deadly force but will be modified to have a scenario where a mental health professional can try to defuse a crisis. The program allows for real-time interaction, and like a choose-your-own-adventure book, the sequence of events can change depending on what the participant says.

Steve Koh, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and one of the co-chairs of the Crisis Lab, hopes that some psychiatrists who attend will become engaged with law enforcement in their own communities and assist in crises.

“Even if a psychiatrist doesn’t directly get involved in a crisis event, they will most likely at some point treat a patient who has experienced or responded to a crisis, and this talk will give them a better understanding of what that person went through,” he said.

The Crisis Lab was developed by APA’s Division of Education in joint partnership with PERT, the Community Research Foundation, the San Diego Police Department, and La Mesa Police Department. Koh will co-chair the session with UCSD psychiatry colleague Jessica Thackaberry, M.D. ■