Sudbury police work to address the increase in mental health calls

Greater Sudbury Police Service (GSPS) is expanding its partnership with the city's hospital to address a rising number of mental health calls.

GSPS and Health Sciences North (HSN) will collaborate to establish a second mobile rapid response team.

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The program sees an officer and a crisis worker pair up to respond to mental health calls.

Sergeant Matt Hall told CTV News there were 3,200 mental health calls, averaging about 50 a month so he feels there is a need for this service.

"As police officers, we have general training when it comes to mental health, but we're not professionals," said Hall.

"So having professional's side-by-side to fulfil these commitments is beneficial as police and it's beneficial to the community because we're now providing a better service to our community members."

He said the pair will work together Monday to Friday, providing both a reactive and a proactive role in the community.

"They can be going in and checking on some people who are having issues managing their medications or getting to appointments," said Hall.

"So they can do those check-ins, assist them where required, connect them to doctors, connect them to other social services in the community."

The sergeant said while some calls are labelled as a mental health call directly, many incidents police respond to have a mental health component of some sort adding there's been a positive response from the community since this concept was introduced.

Jason Seguin from HSN said it will provide individuals with the right kind of service at the right time.

"Whether individuals are coming into our location at 127 Cedar Street, or they're working with our crisis workers in the emergency department, the same types of services and standards are being offered out in the community with police," said Seguin.

“The expansion of the mobile crisis rapid response team will help ensure that individuals experiencing mental health crises in our community receive the support they need in a timely manner,” said Sudbury mayor Paul Lefebvre, in a statement emailed to CTV News.

“I applaud this model of integrated care that focuses on de-escalation and connecting the individual to the appropriate services and I thank GSPS and HSN for being partners in community safety and wellness.”

Hall said the new team should be fully operational as of June 14.