Making the call on mental health

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Calgary police are working with Alberta Health Services (AHS) to improve care for people experiencing mental health issues

Police say about 14 people a day are brought to hospitals on a “Form 10”, meaning someone who is apprehended under the Mental Health Act.

However, medial and law enforcement professionals believe this may not be the best course of action. Now, a phone line is available where officers can connect directly with clinicians through a call centre.

“We can get clinical advice from a clinician in the moment and that clinician can even go one step further and we can put them on the phone with the subject in their moment of crisis,” said Cst. Joel Rumancik.

The goal of this partnership is to get patients the support they need without taking them to hospital if they don’t need to be there.

READ MORE: Survey finds troubling stats for depression Calgary

Calls are answered at the centre every day from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. but AHS admits they’re missing a lot of calls outside those hours.

“We’re continuing to collect data, we’re continuing to look at this,” said Cheryl Gardner, Clinical Operations Manager with AHS. “We’d love to be able to have it as 24 hours but we were charged with doing this with existing resources.”

Police say while the initiative is meant to benefit patients, it’s helping officers as well.

“It’s saved us around 1,300 hours, projected to the end of the year, of patrol time,” said Cst. Rumancik. “We’ve seen the community response from the survey that came out yesterday where they want us in the community more, this is one of the ways of doing that.”

Since the partnership launched in October 2018, police say one-third of mental health calls have ended with officers taking patients to hospital.

 

With files from CityNews