Police utilize mental health app

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This article was published 29/05/2021 (1973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon police officers used an app to connect people with mental health resources more than 120 times over the course of a pandemic that has dramatically increased the stresses in people’s lives.

Police used HealthIM a total of 127 times from Feb. 1, 2020 until Jan. 31, 2021, the most recent dates for which data was available, public information officer Sgt. Kirby Sararas said.

The app, which is accessed through smartphones, gives officers a series of screening criteria to help evaluate peoples’ mental health needs when they respond to a call.

“There’s some questions and some tools on there that would help assess their level of risk and help an officer make that decision, like, ‘Do I need to apprehend this person now or is there somewhere else that I can help connect with?’” she said.

The app guides police through a mental health assessment and recommends a course of action such as linking them with mental health resources or taking them to the hospital.

If someone is apprehended, the information is forwarded to hospital staff to help them prepare and speed the process along.

That means police can spend less time at the hospital after bringing someone there, Sararas said.

The app only came into use in July 2019, so it’s difficult to say whether there was greater use during the pandemic, but it’s still a valuable part of officers’ tool belts, Sararas said.

“It can prevent people from being apprehended and can direct them to connections with other mental health supporters, rather than taking them to (the emergency room),” she said.

Responding to calls involving people in mental health crises is common for police officers, Sararas said, and the pandemic has amplified some people’s mental health issues.

“It is something every officer that is in the frontlines is facing. Whether the call starts out as mental health or somebody is concerned about their family members or whether we’re going to a disturbance,” she said.

“Definitely, the pandemic is adding to what stresses people were already facing prior to that, so it’s just magnifying issues even more so because of the extra stressors everybody is facing.”

The app also gives police more information on the options available to them, instead of erring on the side of caution and detaining the person, Sararas said.

More than half — 53 per cent of people — voluntarily accept the mental health supports police connect them with through HealthIM, Sararas said. That could mean a ride to the hospital where they can talk to a counsellor.

Funding for HealthIM comes through the provincial government. In 2018, the province announced $310,000 in funding from the Criminal Property Forfeiture Program to make the tool available province-wide.

The Rivers Police Service, RCMP detachments and the Winnipeg Police Service also have access to the app.

In July 2020, then-Justice Minister Cliff Cullen announced more funding to install the app in RCMP patrol cars.

A spokesperson for Manitoba Justice did not respond to a question on whether funding needs to be renewed or if police services have permanent access to the resource.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @DrewMay_