Trauma Informed Care and First Responders

“Just leave him, he doesn’t deserve life.” In late January 2026, I interviewed my friend Emily Hannah, who worked as an EMT in central Ohio. I asked her about her experience and about what problems she observed while working in high-stress environments and with other first responders. During the interview, I asked her what she thought were some of the main flaws in the system, and she told me that, usually, the problem was less with the medical system in general and more with the other first responders, specifically the police. After I asked if she remembered any particular or memorable examples of flaws or weak points in the system. She told me about a very specific case that stuck with her and she said that, “We had received a call about an African American man who had shot himself in the head, we got there  cleared everything up and got him to the hospital and while we were standing in the trauma bay actively working on keeping this man alive one of the police officers with us said ‘just let him die he doesn’t deserve to live.’” 

Throughout the interview, Emily expressed that her dislike for the system mostly came from the police officers. She told me that lots of times scenes weren't properly cleaned up, leaving unsafe conditions and potentially hazardous materials, such as firearms. The story above acts as an example of the lack of training police officers have when it comes to medical and mental health, as well as an example of racial discrimination and the targeting that can happen with people who have varying states of mental health. 

Concerning the requirements and certifications to become a police officer, there is little to no mental health or trauma-informed care training whatsoever; the only mention of anything about ethics on the Supreme Court PD website states, “Must have the ability to display a high standard of ethical conduct and be trusted in all work situations.” While OPOTA offers trauma-informed care classes, they aren’t very well enforced, and it's rather lacking when it comes to other mental and physical health education. As stated by the Ohio department of Behavioral Health, “Ten percent of police calls involve a person with a mental illness, and surveys of officers suggest that they don't feel adequately trained to respond to mental health crises, that mental health calls are very time-consuming and divert officers from other crime fighting activities, and that mental health providers are not very responsive.” On top of all that many studies talk about the disproportionate death and violence rates that have come to a rise with the progression of this issue as stated by Congress.gov’s Issues in Law Enforcement Reform: Responding to Mental Health Crises, “One study found that the death rate for people who had signs of a mental illness during police interactions (20 deaths per million) is nearly seven times higher than it is for people without signs of a mental illness (3 deaths per million)” and “Twenty-three percent (251 of 1099) of individuals killed during interactions with police in 2015 displayed signs of a mental illness. Race (African-American [RR = 2.57] compared to non-Hispanic Whites [95% CI 2.08-3.18]) and presence of mental illness (RR = 7.16 compared to no mental illness, 95% CI 6.21-8.25) were strongly associated with such fatalities.” As published in an article from the National Library of Medicine, Deaths of people with mental illness during interactions with law enforcement by Amam Z Saleh, Paul S Appelbaum, Xiaoyu Liu, T Scott Stroup, and Melanie Wall.

was pregnant with a fifth. Throughout her life, she had struggled with homelessness and her mental health. She was killed on June 18th, 2017, after a series of unfortunate events eventually led to police arriving at her house to find her armed with a knife. One of the police officers involved was trained in using a taser, but didn’t have it on him, in contradiction to Seattle police policy. Many of the other hundreds of cases share very similar details to Charleena’s; often, the situation could have been resolved non-lethally, but because of appearance and fear, they usually aren't. National Library of Medicine, Deaths of people with mental illness during interactions with law enforcement, found that "Individuals with mental illness were more likely to be armed with a knife (OR = 3.1, 95% CI 2.1-4.6), and were more likely to have been killed at home (OR = 2.8, 95% CI 1.9-4.0). The death rates for persons with evidence of mental illness during interactions with police are high. Our finding that many persons with mental illness were killed at home and were not brandishing a firearm suggests that more effective de-escalation methods might reduce the incidence of fatal outcomes.” Police officers are usually armed with at least one non-lethal weapon, including pepper spray, tasers, or batons. In many of these situations, they are never used.  On top of all that, 34 states in the US do not require training in non-lethal de-escalation, despite federal initiatives.

Despite the grim outlook, efforts are being put forward to increase training and spread awareness about mental health. Training for Crisis intervention teams and specialists is on the rise, and many government sites, as well as mental health organizations, have published articles and media discussing the need for change and creating a more victim-centered and trauma-informed approach.