Mental health response team launched in Penticton

A new crisis response team is operational in Penticton, better using the community’s healthcare and crime-fighting resources.

It’s called the Mobile Integrated Crisis Response team, and is staffed with mental health professionals and Mounties who work together to help people in need appropriate health care services when police have been called. As is, an estimated one in three calls to police have a mental health component to them.

Cpl. Dave Smith will oversee the integrated crisis response team in Penticton and said that there’s a demonstrated need already for a service of this kind.

“Oftentimes, as the police, we’re called upon simply because someone in a mental health crisis is coming to our attention for doing something strange in public that gets attention and results in a call for police,” Smith said.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean that a police response is the best way to help this person going forward.”

Helping get those people into the health care stream, where supports are preexisting, is more ideal, he said.

Smith pointed out Penticton police are already working in this direction.

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“This is one program of numerous great initiatives in this community that I’ve already seen with mental health and substance use programs,” Smith said.

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RCMP Superintendent Beth McAndie said Penticton’s Mobile Integrated Crisis Response team is a significant milestone in the community’s commitment to innovative public safety strategies, where safety and compassion go hand in hand.

“In only a few short weeks, we have already seen the impact of our team’s efforts to support those experiencing mental health and addiction challenges,” she said.

“The team has engaged proactively with many of our supportive housing facilities. During one of these visits, an officer and nurse were able to provide an unseen referral for immediate medical care to an individual experiencing a significant and potentially life-threatening health issue.”

Working in partnership with other members of Interior Health, McAndie noted that the team was able to normalize the presence of nurses in and around community shelters, facilitating much-needed medical care that had previously been declined by clients.

“The team has participated in discussions and local high schools in relation to mental health and addictions and attended meetings to discuss the program and strategies being initiated to provide wraparound services to support the community’s highest-risk clients,” she said.

While the program’s need has already been demonstrated, it won’t be 24/7 to begin with.

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“I think what’s really important is to really examine the impacts that we have in these in the coming months and really determine where if we’re providing the right service in terms of the hours that we operate” she said, adding now it’s important to figure out how to make the program sustainable.

That, she said, will be ascertained over the next six to 12 months.

In the meantime, the boots on the ground collaboration will redirect front-line members back to their primary duties and investigations in a more timely manner, facilitating a more effective response to incoming calls,” she said.

Penticton Mayor Julius Bloomfield said the program marks an important milestone for Penticton working toward being a safer and more resilient community.

The provincial government committed $3 million to launch MICR teams in nine communities throughout B.C.

Vernon’s was announced on Dec. 1, 2023, Penticton’s on Jan. 22, 2024, and there are teams upcoming on the Westshore and in Prince Rupert, and Squamish, and the Lower Mainland MICR teams operating in Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, Abbotsford and Chilliwack recently launched.

Teams have previously been established in Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George, Fort St. John, Richmond, Surrey, Vancouver, North Shore, Nanaimo and Victoria.