For people supporting a friend or family member with mental illness who is in crisis, calling the police to attend is often the only option left after exhausting all other resources to help the person in distress.

In some jurisdictions like Vancouver, Surrey, Kamloops, and Kelowna, there are teams of psychiatric nurses and police officers who will attend crises when safe. In other jurisdictions, there are mental health liaison officers who work with people in the community to help those looking for extra mental health assistance from the police.

Our upcoming guest on “Look Again: Mental Illness Re-Examined”, Sgt. Cara Thompson from the Surrey RCMP Mental Health Outreach Team, provides some information for families to consider before a crisis hits:

• The RCMP encourages people to call 911 or the police non-emergency line if they require assistance.
• If a family feels like they may need extra mental health assistance from the police, they should call their local detachment, ask if they have a Mental Health Liaison Officer, and try to contact that person to discuss what assistance they may need.
• The Mental Health Liaison Officer may decide to create a file or suggest they call 911 if there is a crisis. 

Each response will depend on where the person lives. For instance, in Surrey, they don’t keep files open to monitor people living with mental illness who have frequent police contacts, but smaller detachments may have that service.