Delta police first in B.C. to use checkbox tool app
Software links officer to Surrey hospital after responding to mental-health crisis
Emergency physicians at Surrey Memorial Hospital are calling a handy new app being used by Delta police a “transformational change” that will improve care for individuals experiencing a mental-health crisis.
Delta police became the first police force in B.C. to use the HealthIM app that’s linked to the Surrey hospital’s emergency department.
Police responding to calls involving a mental-health concern use a 25-question checkbox tool based on their observations of the individual.
Once they input the information into the app on their mobile phones, they see a score that determines whether an individual needs to be apprehended under the Mental Health Act and taken to the ER. If the score doesn’t add up to that, then the police can link individuals to community mental-health services.
About 15 per cent of all Delta police calls involve some sort of mental-health issue. And about one case per day in Delta requires a transfer to the ER.
Police officers have to stay with the vulnerable individual until they are seen by a doctor, a process that can take up to two hours.
In cases of apprehensions under the act, police have to be convinced that individuals are suffering from a mental disorder and pose a risk to themselves or others.
Dr. Craig Murray, head of Surrey hospital emergency, said after the app went live Tuesday that police wasted no time using the technology to transmit encrypted information to the hospital regarding an individual they were bringing; the first patient was someone with a history of violent behaviour, so health professionals were able to properly prepare for that admission, reducing safety risks.
“The value of this technology is that it gives us advanced notice, just like when paramedics can warn us of a cardiac arrest coming or an acute stroke. It improves the timeliness and appropriateness of the care required,” Murray said.
Brendan Sheehan, director of operations for the Kitchener, Ont., software company that developed the app, said the questionnaire police officers can complete in five minutes asks about such things as the presence of hallucinations, irritability, intoxication and violence. It’s based on an established tool called the Brief Mental Health Screener. The firm markets the technology tool as “the new normal in crisis response.”
Sheehan said up to a third of police cases have a mental-health component and the app helps officers make a more informed, objective judgment about the needs of individuals. The process “teaches police a vocabulary to articulate the situation,” he said.
Sgt. James Sandberg, head of the Delta police mental-health unit, said it’s taken at least 18 months to get the app rolled out because of all the consultations and due diligence that were required with other stakeholders like Fraser Health, not to mention discussions with other police departments where the technology is being used, mostly in Ontario.
Sandberg said he fully expects the app will reduce the number of apprehensions made, which will, in turn, free up time for police officers to spend on other cases.
HealthIM says its data shows police apprehensions are reduced by 46 per cent and hospital waiting times by 39 per cent.
Sandberg wouldn’t disclose how much Delta police spent on the software tool, but is convinced the return- on-investment will be realized on a yearly basis: “I believe this will make a difference. It’s filling a gap in the system and it’s pretty impressive.”
Cpl. Elenore Sturko, spokeswoman for the Surrey RCMP, said the detachment is intrigued by the software tool and is keen to follow the Delta police experience before making a decision about whether to buy the technology.
Surrey RCMP has a far heavier volume of potential mental-health apprehensions, so a tool to make the process more efficient could definitely be a help, she said.
Regina and Saskatoon police departments are now testing the technology under a pilot project.
In those communities, police are inputting the information using laptops in their cruisers, rather than on their cellphones.