White Rock RCMP pitches billing health authority for mental health calls

WHITE ROCK (NEWS 1130) —  White Rock RCMP is considering billing the Fraser Health Authority as officers are increasingly tied up dealing with mental health calls.

Specialized experts — not police — should be responding to mental health calls, according to RCMP St. Sgt. Kale Pauls. He wants to see that change and has completed a report regarding how the current situation does not benefit some of society’s most vulnerable.

Pauls is proposing to bill the Fraser Health Authority for mental health apprehensions when police officers have to wait at the hospital for more than 30 minutes. Such instances put a strain on police resources, he said.

Of the 6,600 calls for service a year to the White Rock RCMP, about nine per cent are primarily related to mental health, according to the report, The intersection of mental health and policing in White Rock.

“Proportionally to calls for service, White Rock has the highest level of wellness checks compared to other RCMP detachments in the Lower Mainland,” says the report.

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The White Rock RCMP supports a statement issued by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, regarding police involvement in mental health calls:

• people experiencing a mental health crisis need health care;
• police should not be the first responders when people are in crisis in the community;
• police are not trained in crisis care and should not be expected to lead this important work;
• the health care system has relied on police to respond to mental health crisis;
• transformative change is needed to support a new way forward;
• people with mental illness and their families deserve better.

“The above points are not taken as a criticism of police, they are a reality that the complexities of mental health crisis management can no longer be defaulted to the police,” says the report.

“Although an integrated, robust regional model would have value, it would still involve the police in many mental health calls that do not require police. The health region may be better served by having a mobile mental health crisis response service that is only staffed by mental health practitioners, relying on police by request when they deem necessary.”

Support from centre for addiction

Having trained experts respond to mental health calls is supported by Dr. Vicky Stergiopoulos, with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Stergiopoulos said police officers often don’t have the skills needed to deal with such calls.

“Having this specialized expertise would go a long way to improve the experience of patients with mental illness who are in crisis in the community and their outcomes,” she said.

A special committee to review and reform the 45-year-old Police Act was appointed by the province in July. The committee’s intent is make recommendations on issues such as racism, harm reduction, and mental health.

The province agreed to review the Police Act in June following the death of George Floyd in the U.S. and the protests against racism and police brutality that followed around the world.

Two Surrey MLAs appointed to the committee agreed in July that having mental health workers act as first-responders for wellness checks could be one reform after surveillance video surfaced of an RCMP officer stepping on a woman’s head during a wellness check in Kelowna.

Read the full White Rock RCMP report: