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British Columbia’s Public Safety Ministry says Mounties in the Interior will soon have access to a new mental health screening tool.
It says use of HealthIM, which has been implemented in other areas of the province and most recently launched last month in the Boundary, Okanagan and West Kootenay regions, will be expanded to the Thompson and Shuswap regions starting Wednesday.
The province is providing $2 million annually to the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police to support the rollout of HealthIM across municipal police departments and RCMP detachments throughout B.C.
Harwinder Sandhu, the MLA for Vernon-Lumby, says the digital public safety tool will help police make decisions about who should be transported to the emergency room and “who should be redirected to more appropriate community-based services.”
WATCH | How HealthIM works:
New tool to help Port Moody Police attend to mental health, addiction calls
Starting March 7, 2024, Port Moody Police will start using a digital risk screening tool called HealthIM to assist with mental health and substance use crisis calls. Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth says the tool will eventually be used throughout the province.
She says it will also improve the quality of information collected and improve the safety of health-care workers by enhancing communication from police, including flagging violent behaviour.
The ministry says in a news release that HealthIM guides an officer through a series of questions that will help assess someone in crisis.
RCMP Supt. Michelle Tansey, who is on the board of the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police, applauded the expansion, telling Friday’s news conference that the implementation is helping officers in real-time to provide a more compassionate crisis response.
“Across the province, police officers are increasingly serving as first responders to mental health and substance abuse crisis unfolding in our communities every single day,” she says.
“These situations often unfold quickly and involve considerable uncertainty for every person involved. HealthIM creates greater clarity during these moments.”
The release says the tool has been implemented in all municipal departments and RCMP detachments on southern Vancouver Island. It has also been launched for police in Prince George, the East Kootenay, Port Moody, Nelson, Delta and Surrey.
Tansey says the tool is also available in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.