The Canadian Mental Health Association of New Brunswick is calling for changes to how wellness checks happen.
Christa Baldwin, executive director for CMHA of NB said she thinks there’s a better way we can do this work.
“Mental illness is not a crime and when we have police responding in uniform, that sets it up that there is some criminal element to it maybe, so mental wellness check, it has to be a healthcare response, not a law enforcement response,” she said.
There are problems inherent with sending a uniformed officer out to respond to a wellness check such as systemic racism, which increases the risks associated with experiencing a mental health crisis.
“We’ve seen a lot of success in parts of our province and parts of Canada across the world, where we have things like mobile teams that go out and that may be a police officer not in uniform that’s trained in mental health and accompanied by a social worker or a nurse,” she said.
If mental healthcare was properly funded, services could afford to be more proactive than reactive and enable earlier intervention, but because of the underfunding and inadequate investment in mental health, there’s a reliance on police officers responding to a mental health or addictions related crisis.
“Now is our opportunity to look at what has happened and really move into this age with a more effective crisis care system for people,” she said.
The CMHA wants governments to reach out to mental health advocates in their jurisdiction and incorporate the voices of people with lived experiences of mental health issues and illnesses in decision-making.
Other ways the CMHA wants the government to assist is to invest in community-level mental health care solutions for crises and acknowledge the role of colonialism and racism in the systemic failure to deal safely with mental health crises.
The release from the CMHA comes after reports of deaths of individuals experiencing a mental health crisis stemming from interactions with the police.
Chantel Moore, an Indigenous woman in Edmundston, was fatally shot by police in June during a wellness check.
