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Police, hospital applaud expansion of special police unit (2 photos)

Police, SAH crisis workers will travel together in cruisers to mental health-related calls

The Sault Ste. Marie Police Service has received $100,000 from the province to expand a local program which helps officers respond more efficiently to calls involving people suffering from mental health issues. 

The Mobile Crisis Intervention Team launched in December 2015 as a pilot project, partnering a specially-trained and assigned police officer with a Sault Area Hospital (SAH) mobile mental health worker to respond to mental health-related calls.

The program aims to divert, whenever possible, an individual from being taken to the SAH emergency department for mental health reasons, refers them to other mental health services, and frees up police officers to get back to the frontline.

The program’s expansion is clearly needed locally.

“Mental health calls have increased approximately 100 percent within the last five years, and by another 15 percent this year,” said Sault Ste. Marie Police Service  Inspector Mike Kenopic at a presentation held Thursday at Sault College and attended by Sault Police officers, healthcare sector professionals and Sault MPP David Orazietti.

“Initial results from this initiative have shown a decrease in the number of individuals apprehended under the Mental Health Act and transported to Sault Area Hospital,” Kenopic said.

Now, with the Mobile Crisis Intervention Team’s expansion, two specially-trained Sault Police officers and SAH crisis workers will work as partners on their shifts, enabling the team to attend more mental health-related calls.

The team’s hours of operation have also been extended as a result of the program’s expansion.

The Mobile Crisis Intervention Team’s two police officers are Constable Chris Kellar and Constable Mark Virtanen. 

The team started off with Kellar, who worked for eight years in the mental health field with the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Sault office before working for the last two and a half years as a Sault Ste. Marie Police Service officer.

“The difference is, in the past we didn’t have all the tools to respond to these calls apart from the training we had as police officers, but now we’re really bringing the experts with us to the calls, the crisis services workers who deal with this on a daily basis,” Kellar told SooToday.

“We (police officers and SAH crisis services workers) are going to be together for the duration of our shift, working at the Sault Ste. Marie police station, in the cruiser together, so if a 9-1-1 call comes in for a mental health-related call, we’ll go to that call together and assess the situation.”

The team will determine at the scene if admitting an individual to SAH is necessary.

If that is not deemed necessary, “we can divert them from the hospital and refer them to community counselling services, and we’ll check with them the following morning to ensure they’ve connected with counselling services, or if things have gotten better for them,” Kellar explained.

“We can’t force someone to take treatment through counselling services, so we’ll make sure they’re calmer and safe before we leave the scene, we may bring some family or friends there if it’s appropriate, and suggest some counselling or referrals to Canadian Mental Health.”

“From there, once we got back to the office we would contact the appropriate agencies and give them that person’s information with their consent, then that agency would follow up with that individual,” Kellar said.

Police will also do some short-term follow up with the individual to see if they have consulted counselling services or kept appointments.

“Our goal is to divert people away from the Sault Area Hospital emergency department,” Kellar said.

The Mobile Crisis Intervention Team pilot program is based on successful similar efforts in other communities, police say.

The two specially-assigned police officers are training an additional 16 frontline Sault Ste. Marie Police Service officers in order to give them a better understanding of mental health calls.

The training has been held at classroom facilities at Sault College throughout this week by Sara Burtenshaw, a mental health worker with the Hamilton Police Service Rapid Response Team.

The expanded pilot project will officially ramp up its operations “on or about October 11, 2016,” Kenopic said. 

One Sault Ste. Marie OPP detachment officer and one Anishinabek Police Service officer have also taken part in the training, with healthcare professionals from SAH, Algoma Public Health (APH) and the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA).

“This is going to be a very, very successful pilot project,” said Sault MPP David  Orazietti, who as Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, recently announced the $100,000 increase in funding for the Mobile Crisis Intervention Team’s expansion (that funding going to the extra training required).

“The winner overall is the community of Sault Ste. Marie…they’ll get care when they need it and as close to home as possible, secondly police are now able to be on the road when they need to be, and thirdly, there will be less people in our emergency rooms so those that are there and needing care will be able to access it faster,” said Ron Gagnon, Sault Area Hospital president and CEO at Thursday’s presentation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Darren Taylor

About the Author: Darren Taylor

Darren Taylor is a news reporter and photographer in Sault Ste Marie. He regularly covers community events, political announcements and numerous board meetings. With a background in broadcast journalism, Darren has worked in the media since 1996.
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