Mentally ill need help, not handcuffs, report says

VANCOUVER — There has been a significant increase in the number of interactions between police and people with mental illness over the past five to seven years, says a new report by the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Law enforcement agencies across the country have warned repeatedly that police are becoming the first line of contact for the mentally ill. The report, which was released Wednesday, said a lack of treatment and support for people with mentalhealth problems, along with the stigma of mental illness, leave police to deal with those in crisis.

“I think we’d all agree that certainly in many communities there’s a need for more — and more accessible — mental-health community programming and services for many of these people that police ultimately end up interacting with,’’ said Dr. Terry Coleman, one of the report’s two authors.

Coleman and co-author Dorothy Cotton found that most police organizations are doing a reasonable job training officers about how to deal with people with mental-health issues. Virtually all police academies include a firm grounding in understanding mental illness, the report said.

Virtually all police academies include a firm grounding in understanding mental illness, the report said. But there are gaps, the authors said, and they made 16 recommendations for improvement, including:

More training in non-physical intervention, calming techniques and de-escalation.

Anti-stigma education to challenge attitudes toward people with mental illness.

Provincial policing standards that include mandatory basic and periodic requalification in training for mentalhealth situations.