Wellington County OPP will be one of the first detachments in Ontario to offer a full in house police driven mobile crisis response team.
Funding from the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integrated Network will help create the Integrated Mobile Police and Crisis Team dubbed IMPACT
The program allows crisis workers from the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo, Wellington Dufferin to work from an office at the Centre Wellington OPP Operation Centre.
OPP officers and crisis workers will attend addiction and mental health calls in the community together. That will improve wait times for people in crisis, and options for care.
Police expect the proactive approach to supporting people with complex needs, and providing follow up support, should decrease the number of calls to police.
The program will increase training for officers on addictions, mental health and crisis issues.
CMHA workers will also provide support for officers, and volunteer emergency service providers.
Helen Fishburn, Director of Services with CMHA WWD says, “We are delighted to partner with the Wellington County OPP to offer more support and care options to people in crisis, and their family members at their time of need. This partnership will ensure that people get the right support at the right time, and will prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital. We are also pleased to be able to offer more training for OPP personnel to enhance their understanding of complex mental health and addiction issues, and our workers will also benefit from a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding policing in today’s context.”
Wellington County OPP Detachment Commander Scott Lawson says, “We are pleased that this important partnership will provide much needed support for our officers as they deal with increasingly complex Mental Health and Addictions calls-for-service in our community. This collaboration will allow police to respond to crisis situations with trained clinicians to improve our quality of service to those in need”.
