Date

7-22-2025

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)

Chair

Jason Ward

Keywords

Person with mental illness (PMI), campus police, police training, front-line mental health worker, phenomenology, norm-centered stigma theory, crisis intervention training, police response models, voluntary commitment, involuntary commitment, incarceration, suicide, college students.

Disciplines

Counseling | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to understand the lived experiences of campus police officers as they interact with persons with mental illness (PMI). This purpose was achieved through research which was conducted on two college campuses with personnel from their police departments. The research yielded evidence that supported whether the campus police officers perceive they are either prepared or unprepared to effectively deal with the PMI situations. The Norm-Centered Stigma Theory as designed by Worthen (2020) was used to understand how the officer’s training may have shaped the lens through which they view persons with mental illness. The two research questions that were used to guide this research are what are the lived experiences of campus police officers as they encountered persons with mental illness? The second question is how well did your training prepare you for these type of police calls? Data was collected using in-person interviews. Several themes emerged that included training methods, history of the campus police, the current state of campus mental health which encompassed stress, anxiety, and depression, response models, resources, use of force, and biases which include racial and sexual identities.

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