CHILLIWACK, B.C. — British Columbia is spending $3 million to expand a program that partners health-care workers with police to respond to mental-health-related calls.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says the program aim is to connect people in crisis to the appropriate services in their community and take pressure off stretched police resources.
New teams are being funded for Abbotsford, Port Coquitlam/Coquitlam, Burnaby, Chilliwack, Penticton, Vernon, Squamish, Prince Rupert and the Westshore on southern Vancouver Island. Similar programs already exist in 10 B.C. communities including Kamloops, Victoria, Surrey and Vancouver. The government says one in five interactions with police in B.C. involve someone with a mental-health disorder.
Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Jennifer Whiteside did not provide a specific timeline for when the new programs would be running, but says she anticipates them in “fairly short order.”
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