Recent cases of violence across Canada demonstrate a need to treat mental illness early instead of waiting until a serious crime happens.
Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld talks to reporters on Thursday, April 13, 2023, near the scene of a shooting in the Kensington business district in Calgary.
His comments come after apparent random violence in Ontario, B.C. and Alberta, including stabbing deaths. However, Janice Abbott, the CEO of Atira Women’s Society, a non-profit housing provider working in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, said she has not seen such a reluctance. Amanda Butler, a criminologist and health researcher, said studies show most acts of violence are not committed by mentally ill people and that they are more likely to be victims of violence or of self-harm.“It is also true that there is a small number of people with more serious mental-health conditions that are at elevated risk of being involved in violence perpetration,” she said in an interview.
Stranger attacks in Vancouver increased by 35 per cent between 2020 and 2021 when compared with 2019, it said. “We’ve seen a really big increase in the number of people who are being detained, but for shorter periods of time, so people are getting these kind of short-term stabilizations and then immediately released, which is, we know, not helping them and in fact, it might actually be exacerbating their risk.”
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