Increase in mental health calls for RCMP-image courtesy PG RCMP

Prince George, B.C.- The Prince George RCMP are looking at  a new  program to help them deal with the ever increasing number of  calls for service  to deal with  mental health and addictions issues.

The increase in calls related to  mental health and addictions issues was first presented  to City Council  in February  in the RCMP’s annual report to Council.

Last year, there was a 13% increase in the number of mental health and addiction related calls to the local detachment and  there’s  been a 40% increase in such calls over the past  four years. (see previous story) .

Responding to such a call take one  (or more) general duty officer off the  street  for several hours  if the person at the core of the call needs to be  taken to hospital and the admission process needs to be completed.

Suffering from a mental health illness is not a crime, yet, often people don’t know where else to turn and the first call is to the police.  “When we arrive on scene, and evaluate the situation, it may not be a police matter” says Inspector Brad Anderson of the Prince George RCMP detachment “so partnering up with Northern Health is a huge thing for us.”

The partnership he’s talking about would, if approved, see Northern Health provide a mental health clinician who can ride along with an RCMP Officer who is specially trained in mental health. There is such a program operating in the lower mainland, called the CAR 67 program.

CAR 67 has a uniformed Surrey RCMP officer and a mental health nurse respond to calls involving emotional and mental health issues. Once on scene, the two can provide some emotional and mental health assessments, crisis intervention and referral to services.  If need be, CAR 67 can look after the admission to hospital, freeing up officers who should be on regular duty.

“We want to be proactive here, dealing with the people we deal with multiple times”, says Inspector Anderson “By us just apprehending them under the Mental Health Act, we’re doing what we have to do, but is that really addressing the problem?”

A CAR 67 type program is no longer just something on a wish list as Inspector Anderson says there are moves being made to bring it to fruition, including having  the  Surrey CAR 67  team make a presentation to senior administration  with Northern Health  and the Prince George detachment of the RCMP.  That presentation is  set for October.

It is a presentation Mike Simpson is looking forward to. Simpson, was (until recently) the director for Mental Health and Addiction Services with Northern Health’s Interior Region.  He has been working closely with the RCMP on the CAR 67 proposal for the area.  “I’m hoping we can learn from their experience on what worked and what didn’t when it comes to that close partnership with the RCMP and the mental health clinician” says Simpson.  He adds, “Digging  into that a little bit more,  what are some of the impacts  for the  men and women who have encountered this service, and hopefully we’re going to hear  that, yes,  people were able to be diverted away from  criminal  justice system and hopefully diverted to, where  appropriate,  we can  provide some immediate service and either re-link them with  mental health services if they are already using them, or make that link  if they’re not.”

Simpson says there are proper programs in place to make CAR 67 ( or a similar type program) effective in this region  “We can always use more, but we do have services in place. Our community response unit, know as CRU, is our first immediate response, and we have other community programs.  Some do have wait lists for service, but we try and triage folks so those with the most immediate need can get service.  The challenge we have is, for many of the individuals the police would encounter on the street,  in general, are not connected well to services, and don’t connect well  to services.  They may be intermittent users to mental health services and have a hard time making that link.”

Simpson says he is hopeful a CAR 67 type program could be operational before the end of this year. “My hope is this service will help individuals have a more positive connection with our service system, and eventually lead to better health outcomes.  I’m also hoping this means fewer people with mental health illnesses are caught up in our justice system.”

Simpson says Northern Health is looking at finding either new funding to make this project work, or realigning budgets to make it happen “I’m reasonably confident, I think this is an important initiative, and I think for 2015-16, I anticipate we will have the resources to do this.”

Inspector Anderson says this kind of new program will break down the silos police and health care providers have been working in  “I can really see this  kind of program having us in the car together,  and we’re working  on different issues, but coming to a common goal. They’ve  got great people at Northern Health and we’ve got great people here, but when it comes to some of the more complex mental health cases, we need to have a different approach where we work in collaboration rather than in those  individual silos.”