Mental health professionals helping police with crisis calls in the north

North Bay -

It’s a partnership between the Canadian Mental Health Association and the Ontario Provincial Police that will now see crisis support workers there to help for certain 911 calls.

"We have some of our workers, who are working out of the (communications) centre. When those calls are coming in, they are able to navigate through the calls and deescalate the situations," said Maxine Gareau, the director of mental health, addictions, and peer support for Canadian Mental Health Addictions North Bay and District.

"At the same time, offer some ongoing support such as referrals and follow ups."

The partnership was rolled out seven weeks ago in this region, and the OPP said it has been very successful in the cities it is being utilized in.

"It provides options and opportunities for other opportunities to care, when a police officer responding to their needs may not be the most appropriate level of service delivery," said OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique.

"We have actually been able to defer 18 per cent of mental health calls since commencing the program just a year ago."

Police officers will continue to provide support in these situations but Carrique told CTV News sometimes a staff member from CMHA is better suited to assist.

"We believe that the best way to do it is through the embedding of the crisis workers in our call centres along with our mental health support teams where we have mental health professionals riding with police officers," he said.

Gareau said the OPP approached CMHA about this partnership and said she believes it will have a positive impact in the north.

"Police have been very open, and over the years we’ve worked with them they’ve been very open to say 'this is not our area of expertise, we’re here to respond to the need when people are reaching out, because someone has to address it,'" Gareau said.

"So they’re very excited to have the professionals who deal with this day in and day out."

London, Thunder Bay, and Orillia OPP have also partnered with the CMHA to offer this program.