Richmond’s police officers are seeing an uptick in mental health-related calls and this has city councillors worried on two fronts: One, residents aren’t getting the real help that they need and, two, the RCMP is increasingly distracted from addressing crime.
“These (police officers) aren’t out there doing what they’re supposed to be doing, which is protecting the public. Instead they’re in the emergency room,” said Coun. Derek Dang, last week at a council meeting.
Police-reported data shows a 27 per cent uptick in such calls in the first reported quarter of 2016, over the same time period last year.
“This is a huge increase,” said Coun. Linda McPhail.
Richmond Mounties responded to 358 calls, from April to June. The year before there were just 283 calls. The per-quarter average for the previous four quarters is 325.
“When you have that type of situation you obviously have police officers acting like social workers. And that’s kind of untenable because they’re not trained to be social workers,” said Dang.
“I think the police have become shy in bringing this forward because it’s not something that they feel comfortable doing. . . I think it’s putting the community at risk somewhat,” said Dang.
McPhail said Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) has acknowledged mental health calls to the RCMP had increased in Richmond, compared to the rest of the region, and that there has been a growth in demand for mental health and substance abuse services, particularly for complex cases.
Richmond has repeatedly called on the Ministry of Health to fund a community and rehabilitation team (Assertive Community Treatment, or ACT) for residents struggling with mental illness and who may also have substance use addictions.
Dang said without such services, the RCMP continues to be strained.
The RCMP outlines its goals and achievements to council’s community safety committee every quarter. In September’s report, Supt. Renny Nesset wrote that April and May were “busy months with numerous attempted suicides and four suicide deaths.”
As a result of police action, three lives were saved.
Reducing mental health-related calls is a goal of the RCMP. Part of the solution is to find housing for vulnerable people, Nesset’s report notes.
Council has decided to write another letter to the Ministry and VCH for more support in the mental health field.
Coun. Chak Au said he is growing frustrated with letter writing.
“I don’t want us to write another routine letter to the Ministry expressing the same thing, with the same questions and getting the same answers from the province that, oh, they are already doing something, or they aren’t doing something due to resources,” said Au, a family therapist at VCH.
“It’s more than just a mental health issue. It relates to so many other things in the community like poverty, like homelessness and many other things,” said Au.
