Rapid response crisis team set to form
Mental health association gets funding to expand police partnership
A Niagara Regional Police and Canadian Mental Health Association partnership is expanding through the Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team.
Ontario Health West, formerly the Hamilton-niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network, recently approved funding to make this happen.
The response team includes three mental-health workers who work closely with uniformed police officers when responding to 911 calls. The additional provincial funding will allow for one more team to serve the region.
The NRP and CMHA Niagara “will work closely to determine how and where the program will expand to have the greatest positive impact for Niagara residents,” said a news release from the association.
The new team, like the one in place, will work 12-hour shifts seven days a week.
Since 2015, the team has responded to a growing number of mental health- and addictions-related calls received by Niagara police in the St. Catharines and Thorold district.
Latest data shows the program made 868 face-to-face responses with 612 people last year, said CMHA.
Of those interactions, 623 of them were diverted from hospitals into appropriate community supports.
These diversions led to 688 connections to various mental-health or addictions services while 717 were de-escalated without the need for police apprehension, said CMHA.
Some of the mental health worker and police officer team’s tasks include going into the community to de-escalate situations and provide resources to individuals in a mental-health or addictions-related crisis; diverting individuals from unnecessary hospital emergency department visits and involvement with the justice system; and decreasing stigma of individuals living with mental health and/or addictions issues, said the release.
The program also mitigates “strain on police resources.”
Police Chief Bryan Macculloch called the announcement “welcome news” as his service looks for ways to improve how people suffering from mentalhealth issues are treated.
“The Niagara Regional Police Service has long advocated that mental-health crises are a medical issue and these situations are best dealt with by a health professional,” he said.
He said the infusion of funding will allow the NRP to expand the already successful program beyond St. Catharines and Thorold and “assist more members in our community find the support they need in a time of crisis.”
Andrea Waters, fund development and communications coordinator for CMHA, said Wednesday she could not confirm a dollar figure to attach to the program expansion, but added it will allow CMHA Niagara to hire menta-health workers for this service, and to provide the necessary mental health crisis training to officers working on the team.