A video of a Kelowna RCMP officer dragging a UBCO student through hallways during a mental health check provided a glaring example of why so many are calling for changes in who responds to such calls.

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Two pilot projects underway in North Vancouver may lead the way to freeing police from responding to most mental health calls.

One pairs a mental health professional with a police officer. The other uses a “peer” employee rather than a cop.

Certainly, there are far too many examples of the police responding to calls with mental health components where things go terribly sideways.

The most glaring example is a UBCO student dragged from her room by a police officer after her boyfriend asked for someone to check on her. The police officer is facing criminal assault charges.

READ MORE: Assault charge approved against Kelowna RCMP officer for violent wellness check

More recently senior RCMP officers, such as Kelowna Supt. Kara Triance, have repeatedly called on the province to get more mental health workers on the streets.

“Why have we, as a society, decided that (responding) should fall to law enforcement who are trained in the criminal justice system?” Triance asked during a December interview with iNFOnews.ca. “They’re trained in the use of force. Would it not more appropriately sit with social workers and nurses who have medical degrees equipped to deal with the complexities of addiction and brain damage?”

In February, she outlined to Kelowna city council the shortfalls in the current relationship with Interior Health where there have been numerous staff turnovers.

READ MORE: Kelowna's top cop calls for more mental health resources to help those in crisis

Last fall, the Canadian Mental Health Association launched its own civilian teams to respond to such calls in North Vancouver as a pilot project.

“When you send a civilian team with a peer and mental health professional, that can have a positive outcome,” Jonny Morris, the association’s executive director for B.C. told iNFOnews.ca. “Many people who experience mental health crises have no desire to call 911.”

The “peer” in this case is someone who has experienced mental health or substance use issues and has dealt with it through the healthcare system.

They are given special training and paid as close as possible to the same rate as the health care professional.

“The peer can meet the person where they’re at,” Morris said. “They equalize the relationships in so many ways and can have incredible results.”

That complements the training the mental health professional brings to the situation.

So far they’ve dealt with about 200 calls, 45 to 50 per month, and have only had to call for police assistance once.

“They’ve resolved the situation in the community and haven’t had to call police or go to the emergency department,” Morris said.

The Vancouver Coastal Health authority has also recently launched a Car 22 program to jointly serve North Vancouver and West Vancouver.

“Car 22 teams a police officer with a registered nurse or clinician to provide both phone and on-site assessments and intervention for people experiencing a mental health and substance use crisis,” an email from Vancouver Coastal Health to iNFOnews.ca says. “Six days a week, Car 22 responds to requests from patrol officers and other medical professionals for mental health assistance.”

Vancouver Coastal Health has similar programs in Richmond, called a Mental Health Car, and in Vancouver where it’s called Car 87.

Those programs are similar to the what’s called PACT in Kelowna and the long-running Car 40 in Kamloops.

Those nurses are funded by Interior Health. Despite repeated calls from Kamloops and Kelowna mayors as well as the RCMP, for more nursing staff, the health authority has refused to expand the program in the Interior.

Given that the two different programs running in North Vancouver are both pilots, they could show which model is more effective – both from a health outcome but also from a cost perspective.

“I hope the evaluation will show we need the whole tool box,” Morris said, noting there are times where lives are at risk so police are essential to deal with those situations.

But, if a person is hearing voices and acting out, having a police officer showing up and yelling at them is more likely to just escalate their distress, Morris said.

A mental health professional, on the other hand, is trained to understand and deal with such behaviours.

It will take some time for the North Vancouver programs to be evaluated.

The Vancouver Coastal Car 22 project is to run through the spring while the Canadian Mental Health program, which has federal and other funding, will run through the end of the year and maybe into 2023.

In the meantime, there are some key issues that need to be worked out.

As Morris said, many people with mental health issues, whether that be depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts or other behaviours, don’t want to call 911.

His service has a separate phone number but that’s not top of mind to most people like 911 is.

One option he wants to see explored is to have people with mental health expertise work in 911 call centers since they can evaluate calls through a different lens than police officers.

The logical extension of that would be to expand the 911 services options from police, fire or ambulance to include a fourth, mental health, option.

Alternatively, mental health calls could possibly be directed to the province’s 811 health line or some other three-digit system.

Other countries have different approaches to dealing with mental health issues. Sweden, for example, has the world’s first mental health ambulance, Morris said.

Thompson Rivers University professor Rochelle Stevenson recently spoke to iNFOnews.ca about some jurisdictions that have mental health courts and the need to recognize that people with mental health issues are not well served by the criminal justice system.

“What are the root causes of criminal activity?” she asked. “When you’re talking about mental health and addiction, treating those first definitely reduces the pressure on our criminal justice system and our first responders.”

READ MORE: Why jail isn't the best way to reduce crime rates in Kamloops, Okanagan

Adding the civilian response team approach will certainly come with costs, including paid peer workers. That will more likely fall to provincial or federal governments.

The current system of the RCMP being the main resource means that cost mostly falls on local governments and their taxpayers, Triance pointed out to Kelowna city council last month.

Morris knows there’s interest in mental health associations in cities like Kelowna and Vernon in adding the civilian program but couldn’t say if there any plans being put in place since that’s up to individual branches.

How, or if, a province-wide system is to be created is another unanswered question.

“There is the need for, kind of, a comprehensive encompassing vision,” Morris said.

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