Wellington County OPP and the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) of Waterloo Wellington Dufferin have announced the launch of an Integrated Mobile Police and Crisis Team (IMPACT).
The new program will allow crisis workers from CMHA to work alongside OPP officers when dealing with calls involving addictions and mental health crisis.
“We are pleased that this important partnership will provide much needed support for our officers as they deal with increasingly complex mental health and addictions calls-for-service in our community,” said Wellington OPP detachment commander Scott Lawson.
“This collaboration will allow police to respond to crisis situations with trained clinicians to improve our quality of service to those in need”.
CMHA crisis workers will have an office located within the Centre Wellington OPP operations centre in Aboyne, making Wellington County one of the first OPP detachments in the province to have full in-house, police-driven mobile crisis response capabilities.
Officials expect the program, funded by the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integrated Network (WWLHIN), will “improve wait times for people in crisis and improve options for care,” as well as decrease police calls, emergency department visits and inpatient stays over time, thanks to quicker access to community-based services at the time it is needed.
“This partnership will ensure that people get the right support at the right time, and will prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital,” said Helen Fishburn, CMHA director of services.
“We are also pleased to be able to offer more training for OPP personnel to enhance their understanding of complex mental health and addiction issues, and our workers will also benefit from a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding policing in today’s context.”
Rural residents will also benefit through improved access to community-based crisis response as the program allows workers to attend calls at their home, officials say.
