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February 20, 2018 - 1:07 PM
KELOWNA - A program started last year to divert police calls involving people with mental health and addictions away from Kelowna General Hospital is bearing fruit, Kelowna RCMP say.
“Currently we are diverting 19.4 per cent of the calls related to mental health,” Kelowna RCMP Superintendent Brent Mundle told city council during his quarterly report.
Those types of calls are generating about 63 files a month, the superintendent added.
Mundle said that translates into 64 people who were assessed by the police crisis team after a call to RCMP were deemed better served by other community resources.
“They conducted an evaluation and determined that the person’s needs would be better suited redirected elsewhere in the community,” the superintendent said.
That in turn translates into aproximately 96 hours of officer staff time that wasn’t spent waiting around Kelowna General Hospital, Mundle told city councillors.
The police crisis team began operation last March in partnership with the Interior Health Authority, pairing a psychiatric nurse with a specially-trained RCMP officer who are on active patrol duty.
According to Interior Health, there were more than 4,000 mental health and substance use admissions at Kelowna General Hospital in 2016, including about 15 per cent of those who return within 30 days.
Mundle told councillors an evaluation of the program will be available during his next quarterly report this spring.
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