On this Bell Let’s Talk Day, we felt it appropriate to release the number of mental health calls the detachment deals with in a year. 2021 saw the detachment respond to 319 mental health calls. This represents a 25 per cent increase over 2020.
While these calls don’t always result in an apprehension, sadly, many do, which can be very traumatizing to the individual involved.
Our officers are trained in Critical Incident De-escalation techniques but we are not health-care professionals and weren’t meant to be the answer to a mental health system that is under-resourced.
The detachment is working closely with our local health-care providers and a local non-governmental organization to explore local solutions. These do take time and require funding, but hopefully it is something we can report on in 2022.
If you haven’t already, please visit letstalk.bell.ca/en and join the world’s biggest conversation about mental health, and see how you can help.
