Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

under the Mental Health Act, as any deprivation of an individual’s liberty is a serious
act. These stakeholders noted that funding for adequate community supports and
mental health treatment is therefore crucial in preventing crises and avoiding the need
to deprive individuals of their liberty.
B. The Toronto Police Service
111. It is important to note that several of the healthcare organizations that made
submissions began by thanking the Toronto Police Service for its professional and kind
handling of the vast majority of people in crisis, and for safely transporting these
individuals to psychiatric facilities in Toronto. These stakeholders recognize that the
role of the TPS under the Mental Health Act is, in part, that of an ambulance acting
without the assistance of medical professionals. One such stakeholder suggested that it
may be useful for the TPS and psychiatric facilities to formally acknowledge this de facto
situation as a starting point for achieving greater cooperation.
112. One community mental health organization highlighted that the onus is often
placed on the police to attend to the needs of a person in crisis, help connect them to the
appropriate mental health services, and resolve any conflicts in community settings in a
peaceful manner, all within the context of a deficient mental health system. The
stakeholder concluded, “clearly, this is an unreasonable expectation.”
113. One stakeholder suggested that the TPS develop toolkits or other resource
materials with information on mental illness and available resources for officers to give
to people in crisis or their family members.
114. Finally, a stakeholder highlighted the importance of TPS call-takers and dispatch
personnel obtaining as much information as possible, especially regarding whether a
call involves a person in crisis, and subsequently communicating that information to
officers on the ground. This stakeholder suggests that training for call-takers and
dispatch personnel could be honed to focus on better ways to seek and incorporate this
information.
C. Points of intersection between the mental health system and the TPS
115. Many stakeholders noted the need to streamline emergency department
procedures for transferring care of someone brought to the psychiatric facility under the
Mental Health Act. One healthcare stakeholder noted that the healthcare system’s
failure to recognize that a person brought to the psychiatric facility is a patient
experiencing a medical emergency is reflected in the gross delay, often of many hours,
that the patient experiences before the hospital accepts care over the patient from the
police. Psychiatric emergencies seem to be the only medical emergency that the
healthcare system defers to non-medical professionals for management for such a long
period at the outset of the emergency. This stakeholder recommended that hospitals
should consider patients brought in by TPS officers under the Mental Health Act to
require immediate medical attention. Further, this stakeholder noted that the lack of a
provincial protocol guiding the transfer of care of people in crisis from police to
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