Police Preferences for Mental-Health-Related Training Topics
| Topic | Mean Rating* | % Responding Very Important* |
|---|---|---|
| Dangerousness* | 3.86 | 89.6 |
| Suicide by Cop* | 3.77 | 82.4 |
| Your Potential Liability for Bad Outcomes* | 3.73 | 77.6 |
| Decreasing Suicide Risk* | 3.71 | 74.4 |
| Mental Health Law* | 3.63 | 68.0 |
| How to Recognize Mental Illness | 3.62 | 66.4 |
| Drug and Alcohol Abuse | 3.58 | 64.8 |
| Effective Communication With Persons With Mental Illness | 3.58 | 64.8 |
| Stress Management | 3.51 | 58.4 |
| Management of Problem Behaviors† | 3.44 | 49.2 |
| Mental Health Resources in Your Area/Institution† | 3.37 | 45.9 |
| Personality Disorders† | 3.27 | 36.0 |
| Overview of Specific Types of Mental Illness† | 3.25 | 35.0 |
| Types of Medication and Their Side Effects† | 3.23 | 37.1 |
Based on a Likert-type scale: 1, completely unimportant; 2, fairly unimportant; 3, fairly important; 4, very important.
* Topics rated significantly higher (based on repeated-measures ANOVA with p < .05) than
† topics.