The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) has called on governments to step up and provide adequate care and facilities for the mentally ill.
“Police should not be the front line on mental health issues. Lack of funding in the healthcare system is putting these people on the streets,” says chief constable Jim Chu, president of the CACP. “We need to shift from a point of crisis to preventing the crisis from occurring in the first place.”
Police services throughout Canada are investing in education and developing new models to improve responses, some of which include the use of mental health professionals within their response unit.
The CACP announced a March 2014 initiative called Balancing Individual Safety, Community Safety and Life Quality: A Conference to Improve Interactions for Persons with Mental Illness.
It’s a joint initiative between the CACP and the Mental Health Commission of Canada that will focus on identifying new opportunities and promoting emerging best practices for improving the quality of interfaces and outcomes among persons with mental illness and the police, criminal justice, mental health and broader human services systems.
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