Halton Police place high priority on mental health service delivery programs

Year over year, priority mental health calls for Halton Police have increased by approximately 200.

“The incidents our members respond to are very common, but they also pose an extremely high risk, not only to the person in crisis, but also to their family, the community as a whole and to the first responders working with them,” said the sergeant. Ric Judson, who leads the Halton Regional Police Services (HRPS) mental health service delivery program.

Expanding community collaboration and partnerships, along with mandatory de-escalation and crisis response training for all officers, is leading to transformative and encouraging results.

Citizens who have been supported by Halton Police mental health teams speak of the positive impact these officers have had on them, said Halton Inspector Julie Craddock, who along with Judson led a presentation on the HRPS mental health service delivery program at the last Halton Police Board meeting on August 25.

Highlights of the presentation included the following:

•Some of the mental health workers that officers come into contact with include Schizophrenia/Psychosis, Borderline Personality Disorder, Substance Abuse and Dementia.

•In 2011, police responded to 1,656 mental health priority calls. In 2021, that number was 4,049.

• In 2011, Halton police apprehended a person in crisis more than 50% of the time because there were few other options, Judson said. That compares to a 2021 arrest rate of around 40% for someone deemed a danger to themselves or others.

• Although the numbers continue to rise, Judson thinks it could be the community’s combined efforts to destigmatize mental illness, as opposed to a mental health crisis. “We’re making it more comfortable for people to reach out.”

•Halton Police is committed to training all frontline members in Crisis Response Training, an internationally recognized, empathy-based curriculum for emergency response and de-escalation. crisis.

• One of HRPS’ crisis response teams, COAST, Crisis Outreach and Support Team, is a long-standing crisis response partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association, Halton Branch . The team is made up of an emergency response worker and an undercover police officer who provide support in the community prior to an emergency, with a mandate to divert a person (16 years or older) from hospital or the criminal justice system. A COAST team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and prior to the pandemic conducted up to 450 annual community visits.

• The Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team, or MCRRT, in partnership with St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton, has the same mandate. This team, made up of an emergency worker (RN or social worker) and a uniformed police officer, provides crisis care, defuses, provides a risk assessment and creates a safety plan for people in any age in crisis. MCRRT teams have responded to between 1,100 and 1,300 mental health calls per year since 2017.

• One of Halton’s first community safety and wellbeing initiatives, the Situation Table, continues with over 30 community members meeting weekly to discuss extremely high risk cases in the community that could benefit from assistance. These are situations where it has been decided that if something is not done or offered to a particular person, family or neighborhood, the risk will increase. Between 70 and 100 situations are presented annually at this table.

•The Complex Services Navigator is an ACSM employee who works with Halton Police on a small number of the most complex cases.

It is imperative to continue investing and prioritizing mental health “because we want these positive outcomes to benefit everyone”, he said.

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