Officers are spending an increasing amount of time and resources dealing with service calls related to mental health issues, says St. Albert RCMP.
Although the number of mental health calls has remained stable over the past five years – with a low of 287 calls in 2010 – the time invested by officers has risen, says Insp. Kevin Murray, detachment commander for St. Albert RCMP.
This is largely due to the time it takes to connect those involved with community services that can help them.
Typically one call ties up two officers. The Rural Police and Crisis Team (RPACT) is called in for more complex cases.
A crisis team consists of one mental health nurse and one RCMP officer.
Under the Mental Heath Act of Alberta, police can apprehend an individual if they believe the person has a mental disorder and is a danger to themselves or the public.
The mental health nurse is there to provide a mental health assessment, provisional diagnosis and formulate a care plan.
"Though the team has a police offer, the goal is not enforcement. The goal is to get this person's health back to an optimal, functioning state again," says Cpl. Colette Zazulak, supervisor of the Spruce Grove-Stony Plain crisis team.
Due to a high number of mental health calls, Spruce Grove and Stony Plain have their own designated crisis team. Crisis team members based out of the Strathcona County RCMP detachment respond to calls in St. Albert, as well as 12 other detachments in the Edmonton region. Edmonton has urban police and crisis teams.
The team is called in to follow up on files and connect those involved with mental health services and programs.
Their clients may be dealing with issues including depression, dementia, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or drug-induced psychosis.
"Oftentimes, if they are unwell or they have gone off their medications that can quite easily lead to criminality. It can lead to nuisance complaints, it can lead to desperate acts, it can lead to violence," says Zazulak.
"They're sick, but oftentimes they are dealt with through the criminal justice system when in fact it's a health care concern."
Crisis team members travel in unmarked police cars, as a typical police response may be overwhelming for someone who is going through psychosis, explains Zazulak.
Mobile crisis intervention
St. Albert RCMP has dealt with 308 mental health files this year from Jan. 1 to Nov. 11.
Fourteen-and-a-half per cent of the 846 clients RPACT has taken between December 2010 and January 2013 are from St. Albert.
Compared to other municipalities: 25.5 per cent were from Stony Plain, 11.6 per cent from Spruce Grove, 16.2 per cent from Sherwood Park and 8.3 per cent from Leduc.
Blayne Blackburn, program manager of urgent services with Alberta Health Services, cautions drawing conclusions about the prevalence of mental health crises in a community from those numbers.
"Does this mean that Stony Plain has the highest per capita mental health crisis issues/presentations in that community? Not necessarily. It could mean that there is greater awareness within that detachment of the RPACT team and mental health presentations in general so they are referring to the PACT team more," he wrote in an email to the Gazette.
"What we know for certain is mental health issues are present in each community."
The majority of referrals (70 per cent) to RPACT come from RCMP, while the rest come from community agencies that deal with people suffering mental health crises.
Research has proven that collaboration between police and mental health services results in effective crisis intervention, adds Blackburn. A community- based intervention also raises awareness about mental health and reduces stigma.
A 2012 Cochrane Review of crisis intervention for people with severe mental illness found that a 24-hour service model that included prompt detection of crises and treatment reduced repeat hospital admissions, decreased family burden and improved individual psychological outcomes.
"Historically, it was an acknowledgement by police agencies that continuing to enforce or criminalize mental health was not (resulting) in any significant outcomes," says Blackburn.
"(They asked) 'How can we better respond to this population because we're not meeting their needs?'"
Crisis team members also educate other officers on how to better deal with mental health crises.
"RPACT works to keep people in the community, keep them stabilized and keep them contributing," says Zazulak.
After 19 years in the police force, mental health issues are a concern now more than ever, she says.
"We are in a society that is busier than ever, more stressed out than ever, that is balancing more than they ever have before. I think we have a whole other population coming up with a lot of low-level mental health (issues), (including) anxiety and depression."
"Mental health is one of the most important things in terms of having a fully functional society. When mental health suffers, everything suffers," she says.
