As calls double, some MLAs say P.E.I.'s mobile mental health service is 'dangerously ineffective' - Action News
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PEI

As calls double, some MLAs say P.E.I.'s mobile mental health service is 'dangerously ineffective'

Calls to P.E.I.s mobile mental health service have doubled over the past year. It's still not fully staffed and the Green Party's leader says 'people have died' because they didn't get the help they needed.

Green leader says 'people have died' because they didn't get the help they needed

a person dials numbers on a touch screen cell phone
Three mobile mental health units are supposed to be operating across P.E.I., but only one or two are active on a daily basis because the project is not fully staffed. (Laura Meader/CBC)

Calls to P.E.I.'s mobile mental health service have doubled over the past two years, and politicians and Island EMS officials alike say too many of those pleas for help are still going to police rather than to people trained to respond to those in crisis.

"I can think of two examples off the top of my headwhere a mobile mental health unit should have been dispatched and weren't and people died as a result," Green Party Leader Karla Bernard said Wednesday at a meeting of the province's standing committee on health and wellness.

Family members called police multiple times in January beforeTyler Knockwood died by suicide, but a mobile mental health unit was never deployed.

Knockwood's wife told CBC News that police came to their home three times the day before he died because his mental health was deteriorating.She said she wanted them to take him to hospital to be assessed and treated by mental health professionals.

Instead, she said, officers took Knockwood from the house after their third visit and dropped him off in downtown Charlottetown near the historic seat of the P.E.I. Legislative Assembly, where he had been working. His body was found there on Jan.17.

Committee members said that is preciselythe sort of situation those mobile units were designedto address.

Island EMS cites lack of co-ordination

Launched two years ago, P.E.I.'s Mobile Mental Health Response Service is supposedto triage cases and send trained mental health professionals to respond to criseswhere they are needed.

But officials with Island EMS, the company that operates the service, told MLAs Wednesday that there has been a lack of co-ordination with police, who continue to respond to mental health calls on their own, rather than refer them to the new service.

Two men wearing suits look off camera during a government committee meeting.
Matthew Spidel of Island EMS is issuing a plea to police forces on P.E.I. to send any mental health calls they receive to the mobile mental health help line for triage. (Steve Bruce/CBC)

Matthew Spidel, Island EMS's regional director, said many people in mental distress end up calling police directly instead of 911 or the 24-hour mental health line at 1-833-553-6983.

"What we've offered is that if you receive a call, you can flip it to our line," Spidel told the committee meeting."Please. Like, we are here to support you and the folks at need."

Island EMS had another suggestion that would address the root of the problem: Routeall emergency calls in P.E.I.through a single dispatch centre, rather than having forces continue to operate dispatch lines separate from fire and ambulance services.

Bevan-Baker says service 'dangerously ineffective'

Charlottetown Police Services told CBC News earlier this year that they received more than 1,900 mental health calls last year, after someone called police with a concern. About 34 per cent of those calls came from the same six people, Chief Brad MacConnellsaid, but there was also a significant increase in calls from and about people in crisis thought to be at risk of harming themselves or others.

At most, the force said, just a few dozen of those calls ended up drawing in the mobile mental health unit.

Four people dressed in formal wear sit in a line and look off camera.
MLAs Hal Perry, Gord McNeilly, Peter Bevan-Baker and Karla Bernard questioned witnesses at Wednesday's meeting of the legislature's standing committee on health and wellness. (Steve Bruce/CBC)

"For that system to work well, it has to be well integrated, it has to be co-ordinated, it has to be really effective," Green Party MLA Peter Bevan-Baker saidat Wednesday's meeting."At the moment it is none of those things. It's poorly integrated, it's unco-ordinated and it's dangerously ineffective."

Charlottetown police said they have met recently with Island EMS and they will meet again Thursday to discuss the situation.

Staffing still an issue

Meanwhile, the mobile mental health service is understaffed. Of the three unitsmeant to be operational when the service launched in 2021, only one or two are available each day during the 12 hours of operation between 10 a.m. and10 p.m.

If we are talking about one van, it's only 33 per cent of the service being operated as we saw fit. Gord McNeilly

This at a time when calls to the associated mental-health support line have doubled over the past year averaging more than 400 a month.

"If we are talking about one van, it's only 33 per cent of the service being operated as we saw fit," Liberal MLA Gord McNeilly told the health committee."This is a problem."

Corrections

  • An earlier version of this story said the province's mental health line takes calls only from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. In fact, it is a 24-hour line, but the mobile units operate only from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
    Oct 05, 2023 12:36 PM AT

With files from Kerry Campbell