Integrated units with police and mental health workers are being used for wellness checks in some jurisdictions, but it’s only a small solution to a more systemic problem. Critics say things can only really improve when something radical happens, like changing how we think of mental health crises.
Living with bipolar disorder for 25 years has led Bill Pringle to dark places. Along the way, he said he has gained insight into how police handle mental health crises and what needs to change in their approach.
The Saskatoon man has had eight suicide attempts, which sometimes included interacting with police officers.
Once, he was treated as though he had committed a crime. In another instance, he described police as having a reassuring effect. “The difference in training was very evident,” Pringle said.
During one of his earlier suicide attempts, years ago while living in Vancouver, he said the police “essentially accused me of attention-seeking and would not call an ambulance for me.”
Instead, Pringle said, he was handcuffed and taken to the hospital where he eventually overdosed, which resulted in him being ejected from the facility. “I have never really gotten past that incident,” he said.
But he credited Saskatoon police for being “calm and considerate” during a more recent suicide attempt. “They spent time with me while I was waiting for the ambulance to come. They even followed the ambulance to the hospital to make sure that I was safe and OK.”
Police responses to mental health crises have come under scrutiny following the recent deaths of Ejaz Choudry, Chantel Moore, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, and D’Andre Campbell, prompting demands to defund police. Canada’s largest psychiatric hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, also called for police to be removed from leading “this important work.”
Pringle, who is the former chair of the National Council of Persons with Lived Experience, an advocacy group for people living with mental illness, said the deaths highlight a problem that, “desperately needs to be addressed.”
Though he agreed that police may be needed to attend certain mental health situations, he added, “I don’t think police should be the first line of response.”
Integrated mental health crisis teams more common
Police departments in Canada have received more training for dealing with people with mental illness than ever before, as noted by a 2014 report prepared for the Mental Health Commission of