Practice guides - IPAM Model Implementation Guide

PRESENTATION

The Implementation Guide for the IPAM model stems from the research-action project entitled Intervention policière auprès des personnes aînées maltraitées (IPAM) (Integrated Police Response for Abused Seniors) conducted from July 2013 to June 2016. The project was jointly led by the Chair and the Research and Planning Division of the City of Montréal’s Police Services (SPVM).

The project was undertaken to better equip police officers to recognise situations of mistreatment involving older adults and intervene in collaboration with their community partners. An intervention model for this was developed that notably included practices, procedures and tools to facilitate detection and evaluation skills for police officers intervening in situations of mistreated older adults.

The Implementation Guide for the IPAM Model was produced to enable all policing bodies to apply this intervention model in their jurisdictions and is available for download, free-of-charge, at the bottom of the page.

ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION

The IPAM project focuses on situations in which a first responder, such as a police officer, may play a key role in preventing and countering the mistreatment of older adults. However, there has been little development of a systematic, standardised approach concerning the identification and risk evaluation of mistreatment of older adults.

The IPAM project allowed for the development, testing and implementation of an intervention model for the SPVM to counter the mistreatment of older adults. The Intervention Guide for implementing the IPAM model was written to support diverse policing bodies while considering the particularities of their regions.

DEVELOPMENT

The IPAM project, funded in part by the Canadian government’s New Horizons for Seniors program, took place from 2013 to 2016 and included five principal phases.

Its first two years focused on existing practices at the SPVM and other jurisdictions and the needs of police officers in their interventions with mistreated older adults. In the third year, a practices schematic (preliminary model) was developed based on the results of the 1st phase of the project. In the same year, the practices schematic was adopted as an operational model. Several months later, the model was implemented in a pilot project involving three neighbourhood police stations. Following this first experience of implementing the IPAM model, an evaluation of the results resulted in modifications to the model and the second phase of implementation that involved seven neighbourhood stations. The final phase, implemented in 2016, deployed the revised IPAM model in all SPVM stations.

Different communication tools were created to enable the transfer of knowledge and implementation of the IPAM model in other police services. They are available free of charge for download below and include:

All police services that wish to test a standardised intervention approach to counter the mistreatment of older adults may consult the model’s Implementation Guide.

ACCESS TO THE PRACTICE GUIDE

For optimal use of the Practice Guide, the Chair recommends its half-day training program. For more information, contact the Chair by e-mail or telephone at 819-780-2022 Extension 45621.

References (in French and English) for the practice guide:

General Overview: