A new program in Abbotsford that pairs mental-health nurses with police officers to respond to crisis calls is seeing great success in its first month.
Const. Art Stele, media officer with the Abbotsford Police Department (APD), said the Mobile Integrated Crisis Response (MICR) Team is offering hope and support to individuals and their families.
“They’re telling us, ‘Thank you for having this option’ … We have parents saying, ‘We thought there were going to be police officers coming in, handcuffing our child, dragging them off, but instead someone came and talked about my son’s interests, the band posters in their room,’ ” Stele said.
MICR Teams had been operating in several communities – including Surrey, Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna – when the province announced in July that the program was expanding to nine more communities.
The new communities included Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Penticton, Vernon and Burnaby.
Abbotsford’s teams have been in place since Oct. 16.
Stele said the APD currently has four nurses on rotating shifts who are paired with officers who have undergone specialized training. The nurses are also available on an on-call basis.
Stele said this provides coverage on almost every shift to respond to mental-health calls made to the police. The APD is hoping to eventually expand the program to have coverage from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.
They arrive to calls in unmarked police vehicles. They provide on-site emotional and mental-health assessments, crisis intervention and referrals to appropriate services in the community.
Stele said the types of calls they attend can vary, but the priority for each call is to first assess whether public safety is at risk.
In the case, for example, of an individual armed with a weapon, officers would first work to alleviate the immediate risk to the person and to anyone near them.
RELATED: Chilliwack, Abbotsford getting crisis response teams as part of $3M expansion
Once the threat is mitigated, the mental-health component can be addressed, including whether hospitalization is required and what other resources might be beneficial to the individual.
Stele said having a nurse accompany an officer to a call often alleviates a situation before it progresses.
“The police can be very triggering to some of these individuals going through a mental-health crisis – the uniform, the police car – … but a much softer approach oftentimes lends to the best long-term goals being met,” he said.
The nurse can also accompany an individual to the hospital and speak with medical professionals to give them a more in-depth overview of the situation than they might otherwise receive from an officer alone.
Family members are often referred to the victim services’ program for additional support.
“Obviously, a mental-health crisis isn’t just affecting an individual; it also affects the loving family around them because we all want to see them get better,” Stele said.
The new MICR Teams are supported by the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions and the Ministry of Public Safety through a $3 million commitment from the province.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth and Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis were in Abbotsford on Tuesday (Nov. 14) to celebrate the success of the program.
Farnworth said the teams provide a “better outcome for everyone” during a mental-health crisis.
Alexis said she recently did a ride-along with one of the teams and was impressed with the work they are doing.
“They’re in plainclothes; they’re not intimidating to the people they’re trying to help. They’re creating relationships – and that’s really what it’s all about,” she said.
The province says that, in B.C., one in five interactions with police involves someone with a mental-health disorder.
RELATED: B.C. public safety plan includes focus on repeat offenders, more mental health teams