On June 10, Wellington County OPP hosted a community stakeholder’s roundtable to discuss the mental health challenges facing our community today and in the future.
OPP were joined by representatives from many stakeholders; Guelph Police Service, Community Mental Health Association, Homewood, Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), Probation and Parole, Family Counselling and Support, Guelph-Wellington Emergency Medical Services, Groves Memorial Hospital, North Wellington Health Care, Guelph General Hospital, Wellington County, Police Services Board, Wellington North Fire Services, the Mount Forest Family Health Team and members of the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network (LHIN).
County OPP, like most police services, has generally seen calls-for-service, with a mental health component, increase over the previous five years by an average of 6 per cent.
It is expected that there will be a 5% increase this year with a further projected increase of 9% in 2015. Police are often the first point of contact with individuals who are in a mental health crisis regardless of the cause.
Many of these calls-for-service are handled in conjunction with community partners however statistics show Wellington County OPP’s response to a mental health call averages six hours of officer time from first response to report completion.
“In these situations there are often multiple issues at play so a multi-jurisdictional collaborative approach to dealing with vulnerable people in conflict with the law makes sense,” said OPP detachment commander Inspector Scott Lawson. “As a community we have to continually come together and review our overall response to mental health calls with a mind to working together to reduce the increasing pressure on all our resources. As one of the safest communities in the country our police service goal is to be the call of last resort when dealing with a mental health crisis. Collectively I know we can find ways to accomplish that.”
In an ongoing effort to support our partners, while looking at innovative, proactive and collaborative approaches to reduce police response, County OPP invited Sherri Metivier (RN) and OPP Constable Byron Hornick of the Essex County Mental Health Response Unit (MHRU) to understand their issues, processes, collaboration, best practices and significant successes realized by taking a proactive approach to addressing mental health in their community.
The goal of the Essex County MHRU is to address efficiencies in both costs and resource allocation to effectively respond to complex mental health calls-for-service.
After a day of dialogue and presentations the response from all partners involved was overwhelmingly positive and as a result further discussions will take place regarding how Wellington County and all its stakeholders can further address the growing need for a collaborative, proactive approach to mental health issues in the community, Lawson said.
