Here's how Vancouver parties are planning to address mental health emergencies
CTV
Promises to improve the way the city responds to mental health emergencies are laid out in the platforms of several parties with candidates vying for election in Vancouver this October.
Promises to improve the way the city responds to mental health emergencies are laid out in the platforms of several parties with candidates vying for election in Vancouver this October.
Between January and June of 2022, the Vancouver Police Department was called to 2,131 incidents authorities classify as being related to mental health, according to quarterly data. That works out to an average of 12 per day. In the vast majority of those cases, someone ended up being apprehended under the Mental Health Act.
The issue is one that has come under increased scrutiny since the last municipal election, with questions about police involvement in "wellness checks" being raised by politicians and advocates in B.C. and beyond in the wake of high-profile cases in which officers responded with force.
Calls to "defund the police" and reallocate resources from law enforcement to social services and community interventions have become louder.
For its part, the VPD has been sounding the alarm about the increased pressure on officers to respond to emergency or crisis situations instead of crimes for years.
Back in 2016, then-chief Jim Chu spoke about the limits of a criminal justice response in these cases.
“The police are becoming the first point of contact for those who are severely mentally ill, and that is wrong. These people require health care, support, and medical treatment, not the criminal justice system,” he said.
