P.E.I. police agencies want officers and mental health professionals responding to calls together

Police agencies in Prince Edward Island would like to see clinicians and officers respond to mental health-related calls together. 

Representatives from three P.E.I. police forces made a presentation to a legislative standing committee Thursday about how calls about mental health crises are intersecting with their activities.

The meeting comes on the heels of the release of an OmbudsPEI report Tuesday on the operation of the province's mobile mental health units. 

Police are not currently embedded with the units, and managers told MLAs on Thursday why they think that's a problem. 

"We are of the opinion that mental health crisis situations are too volatile to be sending clinicians without overwatch by an armed police officer," said P.E.I. RCMP Sgt. Shaun Coady.

"There are numerous scenarios to demonstrate that, where mental health clinicians have been harmed or even killed in the field." 

The police representatives said the limited scope and hours of the mobile units mean that front-line officers, dispatched after a 911 call or a request made directly to a police force, are still the primary point of contact for a person in crisis.

Mental health-related calls to police are increasing in all jurisdictions, MLAs learned Wednesday:

Sean Coombs, Charlottetown's deputy police chief, said the mobile mental health units set up by the province and run by Medavie were able to respond to only a handful of those calls. 

"They're in a position where they will only go to particular calls as we're going to all of them. They'll always be playing catch-up," he said. "A lot of times, the crisis has happened and what was done was done before they get there."

The way the system is currently designed, police get dispatched to mental health calls quickly, while the mobile unit will sometimes arrive hours later, after the situation has already been de-escalated. 

Coady has been researching how police and crisis teams have been working together in other provinces. 

"They seem to be having significant success in diverting people from entering the system. And so [the] probability that that would reduce the cyclical calls for service is very strong," he said. "But again, without experiencing it, it's difficult to gauge." 

Back in 2019, police services recommended they be part of a P.E.I. mental health unit dispatch protocol, but Coady told MLAs on Thursday that didn't happen due to what he referred to as social pressures.