FILE PHOTO - B.C. Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside is seen at a news conference in Vancouver, Oct. 1, 2021.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Province of B.C.

Kamloops is getting a new mental health response team that won't include police officers.

The team will instead be made up of people trained in mental health responses and people with lived experience with either addictions or mental health issues, according to a news release from the province.

Kamloops city councillor Dale Bass said it's another tool to add for people in crisis, whether it's related to their mental health, addiction or both.

The model relied on in Kamloops until recently has been a joint project with RCMP and Interior Health which pairs a nurse with a police officer.

Now called the Integrated Crisis Response Team, it's been recently expanded. However, the new Peer Assisted Care Team announced by the province may not be a "trigger" for people in crisis that may not react well to a police officer in uniform, Coun. Bass said.

"Every situation is unique and we need to have different levels of support out there to try to help every unique situation we encounter," she said.

The team is a pilot project run by the ministry of mental health and addictions, which is now expanding to Kamloops, Prince George and the Comox Valley.

They'll be mobile teams trained to deescalate crisis situations and provide trauma-informed, culturally safe support, the ministry said. They also free up space on police time to focus on crime.

Canadian Mental Health Association will run the new programs, which has already been operating teams in North Vancouver, New Westminster and Victoria. In total, those teams have responded to more than 700 calls with minimal police interaction.

“When people are in crisis because of mental-health challenges, we want them met with care and compassion,” Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside said in the release. “That’s why we are expanding crisis-response teams to communities throughout B.C. These new teams will ensure that at their most vulnerable time, people in distress are met with a mental-health response that connects them to the services and supports they need on their pathway to well-being.”

Coun. Bass said the teams likely won't be running in Kamloops until the fall as they work to hire new employees, train them and determine how they will be dispatched.

She said each city has its own needs and expectations for their teams. In Richmond, for example, she said mental health teams expect to get more calls for seniors, while in Kamloops they'll likely be dealing with street-entrenched people more often.

“We are hearing from the existing PACT communities that these teams have been a missing option for people in crisis. People and their loved ones have reported being relieved that they have an alternative to police to call in times of crisis,” Canadian Mental Health Association CEO Johnny Morris said in the release.

The province is continuing to expand the pilot project, with four more communities yet to be selected, along with Indigenous-led crisis response teams.

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