Richard Dolman Award for Excellence in Police Service Awarded to Detective Fiona Wilson-Bates of VPD
The BC Schizophrenia Society is pleased to present this special Award for Excellence in Police Service to Detective Fiona Wilson-Bates of the Vancouver Police for research on the frequency of mental health-related incidents attended by police, and for her outstanding report, Lost in Transition.
The BC Schizophrenia Society is made up of family members and supporters of people with schizophrenia and other psychosis-related illness. We provide education, support, research, and advocacy for more and better resources for people with serious brain disorders. We also work closely with health authorities and other service providers - most notably the police - who as we know are often first-responders to calls involving the mentally ill.
Our organization’s close affiliation with the Vancouver police is historically significant. Since the early 1990’s, the Vancouver police have regularly incorporated the BC Schizophrenia Society’s Partnership program into their training. Partnership education brings a panel of three presenters - someone with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, a family member of someone with the illness, plus a mental health professional. Each person briefly tells their story, and then there’s a Q and A with participants. The program is simple, moving, and highly effective. We are confident that education like this over the years has helped contribute to the outstanding reputation of the Vancouver Police to “serve and protect” people who suffer from mental illness and their families.
Ten years ago, Jamie Graham, then-Superintendent of the North Vancouver RCMP, contacted us about a series of newspaper articles by one of our members who had lost his son to suicide. At the time, Chief Graham was looking for a civilian to help form a new mental health committee of the BC Association of Chiefs of Police. And so BC Schizophrenia Society director Richard Dolman - for whom this Award is named - became a founding member of that committee.
Throughout the years, the BC Schizophrenia Society has continued to work closely with the police. As a Society, we have sought and received official standing at inquests into incidents concerning the police and people with mental illness. We have consistently defended police action, and have questioned instead the appalling lack of timely medical care and treatment for the mentally ill. Our position is clear: Violence involving people suffering from psychosis is first and foremost a treatment issue - and that appropriate treatment is all too often sadly lacking.
In 1999, the BC Schizophrenia Society was the first to publicly advocate for use of the Taser as an alternate method to lethal force when dealing with psychotic patients. We continue to defend this position - most recently in April of this year before hearings of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, and in our brief to the ongoing Braidwood inquiry.
For us, the Vancouver Police Department’s Lost in Transition report was truly a breath of fresh air. To begin with, it is extremely clear and well-written. Through her ability to describe in striking detail how the police are being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of calls about people with mental illness, Detective Fiona Wilson-Bates has helped focus attention on a chronic shortage of resources for this vulnerable population.
As a Society, we have always been grateful for the work of the Vancouver police in helping people with serious mental illness and their families. We were especially pleased to note the strong impact that Lost in Transition has had on the media. It is certainly no secret to us that the police have become by default front-line mental health workers. By pointing this out in her report, Detective Wilson-Bates has helped to shine a bright light where it is most needed - on the lack of capacity and communication in the mental health care system.
The recommendations made in the Lost in Transition report are sensible and specific. They directly address the plight of the mentally ill and the obvious gaps in mental health services. We believe that, if implemented, these recommendations could improve information-sharing among mental health providers, reduce the percentage of police calls, and reduce the burden on families who have relatives with schizophrenia or other serious brain disorders. We sincerely believe that the Lost in Transition report brings renewed hope for better care for the mentally ill, and a reduction in the number of mentally ill people coming into conflict with the police.
It is a pleasure and an honour to present this award to Detective Fiona Wilson-Bates.
Gary Glacken
Executive Director
British Columbia Schizophrenia Society
P: 1-604-270-7841
F: 1-270-9861
TF: 1-888-888-0029
URL: www.bcss.org