Zaiser Benni, Staller Mario S, Koerner Swen
Independent Researcher, Aurora, ON, Canada.
University of Applied Sciences of Police and Public Administration North Rhine-Westphalia, Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2025 Jun 10;16:1585009. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1585009. eCollection 2025.
Several countries have committed to improving law enforcement response to behavioral emergencies through mental health crisis response and intervention training as well as by implementing crisis intervention team programs. However, these measures often rely primarily on traditional crisis intervention methods adapted from clinical settings. At the same time, not all behavioral emergencies constitute a mental health crisis and can be responded to with a single generic approach. Psychiatric disorders, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and/or adverse life circumstances can also result in behaviors that are below crisis threshold but still prompt emergency calls. Such presentations reflect maladaptive coping mechanisms rather than a complete loss of coping capacity seen during acute crisis and include, for instance, drug-seeking criminal behaviors in individuals with substance use disorders or self-stimulatory behaviors in individuals with autism spectrum disorder, particularly when such behaviors violate social norms. Crisis intervention alone fails to fully address the complex nature of these incidents. Currently, no existing framework effectively integrates guidelines for first responders to manage both acute crises and maladaptive behaviors that do not stem from a crisis state. To fill this gap, we propose the integrated Behavioral Emergency Assessment and Response (iBEAR) model as a theory-driven framework that equips first responders with evidence-based assessment, decision-making, and response strategies, easy to access while managing potentially dynamic and stressful behavioral emergencies. The model responds to well-documented demand for enhanced training and preparedness in managing behavioral emergencies, while also addressing the increasing burden of such incidents on emergency services.
一些国家致力于通过心理健康危机应对和干预培训以及实施危机干预小组计划来改善执法部门对行为紧急情况的应对。然而，这些措施通常主要依赖于从临床环境改编而来的传统危机干预方法。与此同时，并非所有行为紧急情况都构成心理健康危机，也不能用单一的通用方法来应对。精神疾病、智力和发育障碍以及/或不利的生活环境也可能导致低于危机阈值但仍引发紧急呼叫的行为。此类表现反映的是适应不良的应对机制，而非急性危机期间出现的应对能力完全丧失，例如，物质使用障碍患者的寻药犯罪行为或自闭症谱系障碍患者的自我刺激行为，尤其是当这些行为违反社会规范时。仅靠危机干预无法充分应对这些事件的复杂性。目前，没有现有的框架能有效地整合针对急救人员的指导方针，以管理急性危机和并非源于危机状态的适应不良行为。为了填补这一空白，我们提出了综合行为紧急情况评估与应对（iBEAR）模型，作为一个理论驱动的框架，为急救人员提供基于证据的评估、决策和应对策略，在处理潜在的动态和紧张的行为紧急情况时易于获取。该模型回应了在管理行为紧急情况方面对加强培训和准备的充分记录的需求，同时也解决了此类事件给紧急服务带来的日益增加的负担。
