Mental-health worker to be assigned to 911 call centre

A mental health clinician will be added at Winnipeg’s 911 call centre to divert some calls to agencies other than police.

Winnipeg Police Service Chief Gene Bowers announced the new position during the Winnipeg Police Board meeting on Friday.

The employee will assess calls for help and direct some to agencies, such as the Downtown Community Safety Partnership or Winnipeg Regional Health Authority mobile crisis service, when police aren’t deemed the best suited to respond.

“They’re trained and know the proper questions to ask to either (prioritize) for a police response or to divert… I do see them also being called by officers as a resource, too,” said Bowers, during a media scrum after the meeting.

He said the provincial government funded the position, which was connected to the Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis program.

That initiative sends two uniformed officers to provide the first response to well-being calls received by police. The officers can call in a team that includes a plainclothes officer and mental health clinician (occupational therapist, nurse, social worker or other specialized professional) to help the person in need, if an assessment deems that step both safe and needed.

However, WPS does not have enough officers to devote to the program to ramp up that particular effort, which led to the plan to employ the clinician at the 911 centre instead, said Bowers.

“This strategy, I think, is a good one. I think that it really gives us that flexibility to respond to mental health,” he said.

The added position means some mental health staff will be available within WPS round-the-clock, Bowers told the police board.

“It will be a 24-hours-a-day response that we’ll have now,” he said.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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