Car 67 Style Program Likely to Start Early March
Prince George, B.C. – It is a project the Prince George RCMP and Northern Health have been working in for some time now, and there is optimism it will be ready to roll in early MarchPatterned after the ‘Car 67’ program in Surrey, the program has a mental health nurse partnered with a plain clothes RCMP officer in an unmarked vehicle. They would be asked to respond to calls which the first responders have deemed to be one involving mental health or addiction issues. ( see previous story)
Aaron Bond is the Director of Mental Health and Addictions, Interior Region, for Northern Health, he says the recruitment process is underway to find mental health nurses for this special project. “We are having a great deal of interest in the program, and don’t believe recruiting for the posts will be any barrier to the program going forward”.
A significant number of calls police respond to involve an issue of mental health or addictions.
As the chart on the right illustrates, the number of calls which RCMP in Prince George responded to in 2013 that were mental health calls, has increased significantly since 2008.
In the cases where people need to be taken to hospital, officers can be tied up for several hours as they go through the process for the patient.
It is expected the Prince George version of the yet to be named program will see an officer and mental health nurse working together for 9-10 hours a day, likely from noon to 9 p.m. Because this will be a service offered 7 days a week, more than one nurse will need to be recruited.
When not responding to a call, Bond says this special team will be building relationships with service providers who work with, or provide services to those who are dealing with mental health or addictions issues “We want this program to be seen as a supportive program as a partnership between health and the RCMP.”
“The partnership we’re experiencing with the RCMP is phenomenal” says Bond “We are both on the same page in that we want this program because we want to offer people the right kind of support and it’s super positive.”
Comments
And in other related news politicians are talking about making vaccines mandatory….
You say it like it’s a bad thing.
Sounds like a really cool idea.
youtube.com/watch?v=RfdZTZQvuCo
90 second video from Penn and Teller that puts the anti vax crowd in their place.
Cannot believe that religious wingnuts or mental midgets who listen to people like Jenny McCarthy whose only education is a doctorate in taking her top off would put their kids life at risk by not protecting them while putting those with compromised immune systems at risk.
Unvaccinated kids should be banned from public schools, universities and public transportation.
My kid can’t take peanuts to school but yours can take measles. Hmmm
More on topic, any support for mental health is good news.
I would opine that more than one ‘car 67’ will be needed even as the first one is launched, even if for no other reason than the calls come in 24/7
At a thousand calls per year and climbing, that’s pretty near a full time gig.
Still, I see this development as a positive one, and a good start, there is one hell of a lot of addiction and mental health problems evident in our community, first responders see it more than anyone.
metalman.
Metalman, very well said. Too often a junior constable not only here, but in remote communities where they work alone, has to deal with disorders with no previous experience in Bi Polar or Major Depressive disorders etc. It’s extremely difficult to determine first, that the person is suffering, then have the ability to talk to the person, understanding the stress they are under.
This has been needed for years and it’s great to see it coming here. Now, if we can expand 3 North at UHNBC, perhaps we’ll have less people going to PGRCC and more folks going to where they need to go.
But, having said that, cops and nurses go a long way back, LOL.
Not gonna tell.
Ditto Interceptor, Metalman and Grizzly2’s comments … It is good to see these type of resources made available at the front line …
Griz .. you are not happening to be referring to the socials arranged for the folks in training at Pasqua Hospital and Depot now are you .. what happens in Regina stays in Regina
Grizzly2; your added points are on the mark. And I strongly agree that more psychiatric capacity is needed, and that many people would be better served by a psych help stay to get their meds. figured out, instead of warehousing them up on the hill, or turning them loose, again.
metalman.
Comments for this article are closed.