A Mobile Mental Health and Addiction Response Team (MMHART) is expanding through Grey Bruce to create a better response to people in a mental health crisis, by not solely relying on police to respond.
The Canadian Mental Health Association Grey Bruce Mental Health and Addiction Services is working with local police services to support people experiencing mental health and addictions crises.
The program is expanding from Owen Sound to include police in West Grey, Hanover, Saugeen Shores and the region covered by South Bruce OPP.
South Bruce OPP Detachment Commander Krista Miller says, “Having the CMHA mental health workers embedded with our officers is going to have benefits for so many.”
In October 2019, Owen Sound Police Chief Craig Ambrose launched the Mobile Response Team which has two police officers with extensive training in mental health care and awareness of mental health issues. They accompany a CMHA mental health worker who has an office in the Owen Sound Police station, to calls. (This is also expanding from two to four days a week).
Ambrose says he brought the idea with him to Owen Sound after implementing it at his previous job with Waterloo Regional Police, “I approached Clark MacFarlane right away when I started here, and we got it set up,” says Ambrose. (Clark MacFarlane is CMHA Grey Bruce’s CEO).
Ambrose notes, “Certainly the best outcome for anybody is to deal with the proper people and having a mental health worker who can deal with people before they get to crisis and keep them from going to the hospital and saving the time and a call at the hospital certainly helps everybody.”
The expansion to police services beyond Owen Sound came into effect November 2nd.
Ambrose notes, over the past year there were some delays, mainly because of a wait for funding and delays due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, “We had to adapt and change the model and learn how to work with that,” says Ambrose.
CMHA says in a release, through the program, mental health workers and police officers work as a team to do the following:
-Assess, de-escalate on scene and provide resources to individuals in a mental health or addictions-related crisis
-Divert individuals from unnecessary hospital emergency department visits and involvement with the justice system
-Determine appropriate links to community services
-Improve individual and caregiver experiences
-Decrease stigma of individuals living with mental health and/or addictions issues
-Build and maintain effective partnerships between police services and health care agencies
In our rural communities, the mental health worker is based out of the police station. They will self-dispatch and meet a uniformed officer at the scene of a crisis call. The Mental Health Association says the self-dispatch approach allows the mental health worker to cover a larger geographic area for these communities and will run three days per week, with various rotating schedules.
CMHA Grey Bruce CEO Clark MacFarlane says, “Our mental health workers are able to evaluate a crisis on scene, ensure the individual receives an accurate assessment and is connected with the most appropriate resources to regain wellness. The expansion of MMHART will save even more lives.”
South Bruce OPP Detachment Commander Krista Miller says she believes it will help de-criminalize mental health issues, avoid apprehensions and rides in the back of a police cruiser, and divert away from hospital emergency room visits. She adds, “It will reduce the amount of time officers dedicate to these calls for service due to assessments and proper supports being offered at the time. There is no downside to this great partnership,” says Miller.
The Canadian Mental Health Association says the cost to house a person in the community with mental health supports is $72 per day, compared to $460 per day to house a person in jail or $485 per day in hospital.
A great addition to our local policing partners. Thank-you @cmhagb for the partnership & ongoing collaboration. HPS welcomes #MMHART support workers R.B & Muriel, based at our Hanover Police Station who will help address the needs of #Hanover & #WestGrey communities. https://t.co/vz2PFPtHBz
— Christopher Knoll (@ChiefKnoll) November 16, 2020