Date

5-20-2026

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)

Chair

Tracy N. Baker

Keywords

Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), Mental Health (MH), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and World Health Organization (WHO)

Disciplines

Counseling | Education

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of mental health issues and their connection to law enforcement creates a need to understand the perceptions and attitudes of police officers toward mental health. Through this qualitative phenomenological study, the lived experiences of police officers from multiple local law enforcement agencies located in Southeast Texas Region were examined, with a focus on how they perceived mental health issues, how they responded to crises involving mental health issues, and how their perceptions influenced their decision-making during these crises. It is estimated that at least 52.9 million people in the United States have experienced mental health issues since 2020 (National Institute of Mental Health, 2021). In the context of these statistics, police officers have increasingly become the primary responders to mental health emergencies amidst an underfunded mental health specialists’ sector. While various programs, such as the co-responder models and the Crisis Intervention teams (CITS), have been implemented in different police departments, negative interactions between police officers and individuals with mental health issues persist. This study addresses a critical gap in the literature by examining the perspectives of police officers within the context of Texas.

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