Our specialist police officers have taken extensive training. General police officers in Quebec are increasingly taking the training provided by the Quebec national police school and social services on how to respond to people with mental health issues. The school has even overhauled its courses on tactical communication and active listening to encourage de-escalation. Police officers in Quebec, and not only the officers in Sherbrooke, have more and more access to this type of training.
To better handle a person with a mental health issue, we must know what their illness is. We often lack this information when we respond on the ground, whereas the social services have this information. Depending on the illness, the de-escalation training gives our police officers ways to communicate and ensure optimal responses.
For example, we don't respond to a person with schizophrenia in the same way that we would respond to a person suffering from depression. We don't communicate in the same way with a person who has manic depression or with someone who poses a high risk of committing an act.