Psychological consultation with a police department

Psychological consultation service provided to a Texas police department leads to new methods of providing mental health services to a community. After becoming familiar with police methods, the consulting staff informed policemen of referral sources, set up interagency meetings between police administrators and supervisors and mental health workers, and helped with a training program for handling disturbed behavior. This book documents the activities of the staff (composed of upper level psychology students from the University of Texas) and also discusses underlying behavioral principles, theories of psychosocial intervention, and the psychology of police organization. As a whole, the police regarded the program enthusiastically. The results indicate that the project was instrumental in effecting changes in police intervention in crisis situations. Results also suggest that attitude change is not necessary for behavioral change.