PACT providing a unique police response program
When crisis worker Amanda Guldiman and Saskatoon police Const. Jeff Nachtegaele travel around the city, they do so in an unmarked vehicle to avoid drawing attention to their presence in an area.
On a recent day, they got a request from someone asking for help with a mentally ill sibling. The team let the person know they would assist, so the caller wouldn’t have to leave work.
Guldiman and Nachtegaele are members of the Police and Crisis Team (PACT), a joint agency partnership between city police, the Saskatoon Crisis Intervention Service and the Saskatchewan Health Authority. Many of the calls they respond to are related to mental health, suicide risk or addictions.
“It’s never easy meeting somebody on possibly the worst day of their lives, but if we can steer them in the right direction, or alleviate that crisis, that means all the world to us,” said Guldiman, who joined PACT last September.
The number of suicide risk calls made to emergency services in Saskatoon is rising, according to a report PACT delivered recently to the Board of Police Commissioners.
PACT responded to an average of 25 suicide-related calls per month between April 1, 2017, and March 31, 2018. Between April 1, 2015, and March 31, 2018, the team also responded to an increasing number of suicide risk calls, the report states.
Rita Field, executive director of Saskatoon Crisis Intervention Service, noted the city’s population has grown since 2015.
“And also at the same time, I think there is greater awareness about mental health and hopefully less stigma about reaching out and asking for help,” she said.
“I think those things all put together could be responsible for the rise in calls.”
There may also be more awareness about police capacity to respond. Any 911 calls that are related to mental health can be directed to PACT, so over time the numbers may also rise, Field added. Calls to the Mobile Crisis Service come through its 24-hour hotline rather than 911.
According to the Saskatoon Crisis Intervention Service, the Mobile Crisis Service sees a six- to 10-per-cent increase in the number of service requests or crisis calls each year.
In the last 12 months, it responded to 28,435 crisis calls, 7,500 of which involved an emotional, mental health or addiction crisis. Another 2,000 were related to suicide prevention and intervention.
Preliminary data from the Office of the Chief Coroner of Saskatchewan shows 34 people died of suicide in Saskatoon in 2017. Preliminary numbers from 2016 showed 40 people died of suicide in the city that year. Final statistics for 2015 show 34 people died of suicide that year, 28 in 2014 and 27 in 2013.
City police Supt. Mitch Yuzdepski links the rising number of PACT calls to increased drug use, based on anecdotal and statistical evidence.
“I think what we’ve seen over the last three to five years, at least in the city, is an increase in the use of crystal meth,” he said.
Calls flagged as involving a suicide risk may come from the person in distress, or from a friend or family member. The person may also be under a doctor’s care, potentially on medication and may have stopped taking it, Yuzdepski said.
The crisis intervention workers have experience in the field working with people who deal with depression and suicidal ideation, while police officers in the unit ensure the environment is safe and support the crisis worker, he noted.
“It’s actually, interestingly enough, that sometimes some of the PACT workers have said that the person relates more to the police officer in uniform than the crisis worker. So, I think it’s been a very good pairing,” Yuzdepski said.
PACT was first implemented as a pilot project in 2014. After showing success, it became a permanent fixture and the first of its kind in the province. Two two-person teams of one police constable and one mental health worker are on duty 10 hours a day.
Nachtegaele has been with the unit since 2014. Previously, he worked as a replacement officer with a similar unit operated by Edmonton police. Saskatoon police asked him for input about creating a similar unit in 2012.
His time with the PACT unit has been rewarding, he said.
“In regular patrol work, you don’t go home at the end of the day happy, believing you helped somebody every day. In this position, I rarely go home at the end of the day not believing I made a difference in somebody’s life.”
Saskatoon Crisis Intervention Service can be reached 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 306933-6200.
In this position, I rarely go home at the end of the day not believing I made a difference in somebody’s life.