The Upper Ottawa Valley OPP is taking on the future of community policing. Detachment Commander Stephan Neufeld provided an update to Laurentian Valley council on Tuesday night (March 1st, 2022). Neufeld says mental health calls are going through the roof and adds the pandemic has made it worse.
The OPP Commander says in January of 2020 the Upper Ottawa Valley OPP launched an initiative with Renfrew County Mental Health where nurses would accommodate police officers to mental health calls in the community. Neufeld says the program hit the ground running and was a major success. Neufeld says this project was derailed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit two months later in March of 2020. He was happy to report the program got back up and running again in September of 2021. Neufeld says the detachment has received grant funding for a second nurse to assist on mental health calls adding this will revolutionize the way policing looks.
Neufeld described a situation where someone may call 911 at 2:00am on a Friday night because their son is in crisis, police will show up, bring them to the hospital, sit with them for several hours while waiting to see a doctor and release the individual when they tell a physician they don’t want to hurt themselves. He told members of council this creates longer lines in hospitals and adds to the stigma surrounding mental health. Neufeld says now imagine police responding to that same home 80-times in a year and the strain on resources this may cause.
The detachment commander says now they will reach out to the individual earlier in the week to provide assistance and have noticed a substantial decrease in mental health calls by taking these proactive and preventative measures.
Renfrew OPP and the Pembroke Regional Hospital have also recently joined forces to create a mobile crisis response team. Over the last few years, these collaborations have been evolving and enhanced to include mental health experts co-responding with police. Support also continues after the call for service and referrals are made to applicable agencies in Renfrew County.
(written by: Rudy Kadlec)
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