5 Hours | 5 CEs

This on-demand professional training program on Designing Mental Health Training Curricula for Police Culture is presented by Christopher Weaver, Ph.D. and Ret. Sgt. Vanessa Payne.

This program describes stereotypes and evidence regarding police as a cultural group, including reviewing relevant laws and sample policies that govern police behavior. Participants will be guided to draft a mock training curriculum for a challenging and divisive topic, customized to the interaction of police culture with their own.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this program you will be able to:

  • Describe stereotypical versus evidence-supported elements of police culture

  • Describe core tenets of police work that any training curriculum needs to honor

  • Describe state police-perspective rationale supporting behaviors seen publicly as problematic

  • Describe talking points to combat negative assumptions about yourself that police may hold

  • Describe common points of failure for mental health professionals who train police

  • Describe police-perspective talking points to teach a mental health-focused learning objective

Presented By

Christopher M. Weaver, PhD

Dr. Weaver is a Clinical Psychologist, and Director of the Forensic Psychology Emphasis at Palo Alto University. He is the lead author of Law & Mental Health - A case-based approach, and is published on police officer training among other topics. He is a co-author of the Police Officer PTSD Toolkit of the National Center for PTSD, with whom he is also collaborating to adapt PTSD support apps for police. Dr. Weaver has co-authored other in-person and video-based police curricula focusing on the topics of PTSD and Implicit Race Bias. He is Principal Investigator evaluating a national VA Police train-the-trainer initiative, and an AP-LS-funded study to develop a suicide risk assessment smartphone app for use by police officers.

Sgt. Vanessa Payne (Ret.)

Sgt. Payne has spent 29 years with the San Jose Police Dept. There, she served numerous roles, including patrol officer, Sexual Assaults Investigations Detective, and on the Internal Affairs and School Liaison Units. She also worked on the Threat Management and Domestic Violence teams of the Family Violence Unit. For the past 8 years, Sgt. Payne has headed the Crisis Management Unit tasked with coordinating and conducting SJPD's extensive CIT training program. There, Sgt. Payne worked to curate the CIT curriculum and to mentor and optimize the impact of health and mental health professionals' trainings on police officer trainees.

  • Intended Audience

    This self-paced program is intended for mental health and other allied professionals.

  • Experience Level

    This self-paced patient is appropriate for beginner, intermediate, and advanced level clinicians.

  • CE / CPD Credit

    APA, ASWB, CPA, NBCC Click here for state and other regional board approvals.

Curriculum

    1. Review Before Proceeding

    1. Lesson 1 Video

    2. Existing Police Training Materials

    3. Interpersonal Circumplex

    4. Transtheoretical Model_Stages of Change

    1. Lesson 2 Video

    2. Self-Assessment – Attitudes Toward Police

    3. Personal History Statement

    4. Lesson Quiz

    1. Lesson 3 Video

    2. How well do you understand police stress? - Worksheet Submission

    3. Lesson Quiz

    1. Lesson 4 Video

    2. Lesson Quiz

    1. Lesson 5 Video

    2. De-escalating the mentally ill

    3. Lesson Quiz

About this course

  • $250.00
  • 23 lessons
  • 4 hours of video content

Develop a Specialty Area of Practice

Transforming mental health professionals into experts

  • Expert Instructors

    Professional training developed and delivered by the field's leading experts

  • CE Credit

    Earn CE credit for meaningful professional training that will elevate your practice

  • Convenience & Flexibility

    Learn at your own pace, from wherever you might be!

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