Local OPP and the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington Dufferin (CMHA) have established 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.
CMHA crisis workers will have an office located within the Centre Wellington OPP operation centre.
Wellington will be one of the first OPP detachments in the province to have full in-house, police-driven mobile crisis response capabilities. The new venture is funded by the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integrated Network.
OPP officers and crisis workers will attend addiction and mental health calls-for-service in the community together.
OPP and CMHA officials state the collaborative response will improve wait times for people in crisis and improve options for care.
The agencies anticipate rural residents will also benefit through improved access to community based crisis response as the program will allow workers to attend calls at their home.
