A third Metro Vancouver city now has a mobile crisis response unit to help police handle calls involving people in mental health crisis – but it isn’t Burnaby.
On Monday, North Vancouver RCMP announced “Car 22,” a pilot program involving North Van RCMP, Vancouver Coastal Health and the West Vancouver Police Department.
Staffed with a police officer and a VCH mental health professional, Car 22 will operate six days a week, responding to requests from patrol officers and other medical professionals for mental health assistance.
“To have a mental health care professional formally partnered with police officers on the North Shore for mental health calls will improve care for the most vulnerable in our community,” said Ira Roness, director of mental health and substance use for Vancouver Coastal Health on the North Shore. “VCH continues to work with our partners to create a comprehensive system of mental health and substance-use care to ensure those who need it have access to treatment.”
Burnaby RCMP pitched a similar pilot program to Fraser Health in November 2020 to help deal with skyrocketing mental health calls to police in this city.
The detachment said it was prepared to allocate a full-time officer to the program as well as a vehicle and other equipment, but Fraser Health rejected the proposal.
The health authority provided no explanation for why it supports a mental health car program in Surrey – Car 67 – but rejected Burnaby’s proposal.
“The Car 67 program is a highly specialized program that is unique to the Surrey community,” media spokesperson Alycia Coulter told the NOW in an emailed statement in April 2021.
The NOW renewed its request for an explanation this week after the North Shore pilot was announced, but Fraser Health spokesperson Dixon Tam said only that the information sent in response to the earlier request “remains the case.”
"We have no further information to share at this time," Tam said in an emailed statement.
Mental health calls to police in Burnaby jumped 21% in 2020 (from 2,811 in 2019 to 3,410 in 2020), according to Burnaby RCMP, and the number of mental health apprehensions in the city rose 14% (from 968 in 2019 to 1,102 in 2020). Data for 2021 was not available, according to the detachment.
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