With a rising number of mental health-related calls, Burnaby Mounties are using a proactive strategy to help complete the circle of care for people in need of help.
Two years ago, Burnaby RCMP introduced a new position in the detachment – a mental health intervention coordinator.
“There was a need identified by our management that they needed some kind of liaison role between the detachment, the police, the hospital and the mental health community,” said Const. James Grandy.
Grandy volunteered for the position in 2011 and since then has been responsible for creating comprehensive plans for people who trigger multiple police calls on a monthly, and sometimes weekly, basis. Together with nurses from Fraser Health, Grandy develops plans to help these repeat callers get the help they need.
“It’s involving people who have expertise in this area and have the resources and ability to put together a management plan,” he said. “In some cases it’s having a psychiatrist involved, or sometimes it’s a case worker involved.”
Once a week Grandy meets with a Fraser Health nurse to go over the files he’s working on. They share information, be it regarding a person who has been dealt with by police, as sometimes Fraser Health isn’t even aware of the person.
By sharing information, police and health professionals are able to provide a well-rounded cycle of care, Grandy said.
“We discuss files and people in the community who we found are either high-risk or chronic in nature due to their mental health, and we would go out and visit these people and problem solve their issues,” he added.
According to a Burnaby RCMP report recently submitted to city council, Burnaby Mounties responded to 1,476 mental health-related calls in 2012, a nine per cent increase from 2011.
While Grandy is sure the number of calls will continue to rise as new people in the community deal with mental health issues, he hopes that by being proactive with repeat and chronic callers, Burnaby can reduce or eliminate these calls altogether.
“There are several people who have been identified as being a burden on police resources, and so I have, in consultation with mental health (workers), been able to reduce a lot of their calls for service,” he said.
One person in particular stands out to Grandy. Earlier this year, a man was calling police on a regular basis, sometimes multiple times a month. It turned out the man was an alcoholic, so Grandy took his file to Fraser Health’s substance abuse services and after getting the help he needed, police haven’t been called to his home since.
“That’s an example of us being able to identify somebody’s need and being able to know who to contact and who to hook that person up with in the community,” Grandy said.
