This is an online course designed to assist law enforcement officers in handling persons with mental health and cognitive impairment issues. The lesson addresses various disorders and conditions that affect cognitive function. 

The first section of this lesson examines developmental disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, Prader-Willi syndrome, and fetal alcohol syndrome. It explains how to recognize when a person has a developmental disability and provides detailed guidance for law enforcement officers on handling an encounter with persons with specific developmental disabilities.

The second section of this lesson examines dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. It explains how to recognize when a person has dementia and provides detailed guidance for law enforcement officers on handling encounters with persons with dementia. It provides additional guidance on handling reports of missing persons with dementia.

The Iowa Law Enforcement Academy has reviewed the 2019 PLS Developmental Disabilities & Dementia online lesson and found that it meets the criteria for annual in-service mental health training as outlined in Iowa Administrative Code r. 501-8.1(4). This lesson is intended to take one hour to complete and focuses on developmental disabilities and dementia as a subset of issues involved in mental health.