A mental health crisis response team is now available 24-7 on the streets of Thunder Bay.
Thunder Bay Police, the Thunder Bay branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, and the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre are highlighting their Integrated Mobile Police Assessment Crisis Team (IMPACT).
Inspector Derek West explains the IMPACT program is an expansion of their mobile crisis response team, and will run as a one-year pilot.
He says they’ve responded to 71 calls since the pilot began on January 4th.
Officers are paired with mental health workers and immediately respond to all mental health-related calls police receive.
THUNDER BAY A new pilot project launched earlier this month by the Thunder Bay Police Service, CMHA Thunder Bay Branch and the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre hopes to provide better and immediate services to individuals dealing with mental health crises in the community.
The details of the Integrated Mobile Police Assessment Crisis Team (IMPACT) were announced through a virtual news conference on Tuesday, Jan. 26.
The pilot project is an expansion of the Joint Mobile Crisis Response Team initiative which launched in June 2018.
“The goal of the pilot is to reduce police time in the emergency department, divert individuals from having to attend the emergency department while providing supports for individuals in the community,” Insp. Derek West of the Thunder Bay Police Service said Tuesday.
The Integrated Mobile Police Assessment Crisis Team (IMPACT), which launched on Jan. 4, will feature a police officer paired with a crisis worker based at the police station to respond to mental health calls for service to police for 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
The joint mobile crisis response team, which has been in place for nearly three years, has workers sent from the mental health association s headquarters to join police officers at the scene of calls. That two-person team will continue to operate.
Jennifer Hyslop, the chief executive officer of the Canadian Mental Health branch in Thunder Bay, described the IMPACT project as the next logical step for the partnership.