Rising number of calls indicate growing mental health crisis, say police on P.E.I.
CBC
Police services across P.E.I. say they're seeing a steady increase in the number of mental health calls they receive year after year, with calls coming from people in crisis especially on the rise.
In Charlottetown, police chief Brad MacConnell said he's watched the number of mental health-related calls go up consistently since at least 2018.
There were 686 of those calls to city police that year, data provided to CBC by Charlottetown Police shows. That number grew to 1,918 calls in 2022.
It's an increase MacConnell said officers have noticed on the frontlines as well.
"The mental health crisis is not getting any better. It's only getting worse. We're seeing increased numbers," he said.
"There's also an anxiety that's in our community and in our province and in our country, I think, that we've never experienced before. The result is in our mental health calls."
MacConnell said about 34 per cent of the calls made last year consistently came from the same six people, but there's also been an increase in the number of new callers as well.
He said police are also responding to a significant increase in calls from people in crisis who are at risk of harming themselves or others.
"That should be alarming to everyone, and everyone should be talking about this," MacConnell said.
Summerside Police and P.E.I. RCMP have seen mental health calls rise as well, echoing MacConnell's concerns.
In Summerside, the number of calls under the Mental Health Act jumped from 176 in 2019, to 310 last year.
So far in 2023, there have already been more than 130 mental health calls in the city.
Sgt. Jason Blacquiere said the number of well-being checks made by police in Summerside is also growing. Well-being checks often are related to mental health issues.
Meanwhile, RCMP Cst. Gavin Moore said there were more than 130 mental health calls to that police force last year compared to 2019, which made for an average of about three mental health calls per day.
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