Whether it’s someone threatening to commit suicide or harm others, police often find themselves responding to mental health crises. In Salmon Arm the number of calls has spiked in recent months and it’s tying up police resources.
RCMP statistics show that in the first quarter of the year mental health calls almost doubled compared to 2015. There were 49 calls in the first three months of 2015 compared to 95 during the same time period this year.
In the second quarter, from April to June, police received 2.5 times more calls than they did during the same period last year. The number of mental health related incidents rose from 65 to 163.
Police don’t know why they are seeing a jump in these types of calls.
However, the calls can often mean an escorted trip to the hospital.
These mental health related cases are putting increasing demands on police resources in the Shuswap.
“The increase in mental health calls has taken away from doing other things. But it is an emergency response and it hasn’t decreased our level of service because we do have the resources that are available to deal with that,” West said.
The health authority said it monitors demand for mental health calls and increases its services when needed.
But for health officials, the amount of calls of this nature is not unusual.
“That’s very much with an increased population of people coming to vacation here as well as the summer climate bringing some transients into our community.”
However, police have reported an increased number of calls compared to the same time periods last year so their stats can’t be explained as a seasonal issue.
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