SASKATOON – Mental illness is an issue that continues to challenge our police service every day and one that needs more understanding and education.
That’s why “Bridging the Gap: Policing and Mental Health” is the topic of discussion at the 24th annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Police Boards in Saskatoon.
According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada rates of serious mental health problems among federal offenders has increased by up to 70 per cent since 1997.
As a result more and more police time is taken up dealing with such issues.
“I’d estimate probably 30 to 40 per cent of our time is taken up with issues such as this, it could be a neighborhood dispute dealing with addictions, it could be a homeless person, it could be some kids on the street that have some issues, it’s varied across all cultures and across the whole city,” said Saskatoon Police Chief, Clive Weighill.
“I’d say it’s one of the biggest emerging problems that we’ve seen in the last 10 or 15 years in policing, people call us, there’s nuisances, they want us to deal with the problem, we end up putting intoxicated people in our detention areas and they don’t belong there, it’s a health issue not a crime issue,” he added.
The Mental Health Commission of Canada welcomed the discussion.
“Acknowledging this and talking about it openly will go a long way to helping everybody that’s involved, police officers as well as the general public,” said Mental Health Commission of Canada President and CEO Louise Bradley.
She says while training and education has improved the association hopes to implement a standard curriculum for police officers across the board.
“One critically important component of it is the de-escalation component so before any use of force is implemented there are very specific steps,” she said.
It’s not only dealing with people with mental issues being discussed at the conference, the mental health of officers themselves who deal with confronting situations on a daily basis will also be addressed.
“We haven’t given that a great deal of discussion yet we know that half a million people in Canada every day call in sick to a mental health problem; how many of those are police officers,” questions Bradley.
She says they also hope to implement the psychology safety standard for the workplace for police agencies across the country.
“It’s a two way street our officers suffer from some of the effects of the things that they see and do and of course we’re dealing with people who might have issues as well,” said Weighill.
The conference runs until Saturday.
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