Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

III.
Recommendations
120. Before setting forth recommendations on the issues discussed in this chapter, I
believe it is important to pause, and as one stakeholder said, to look beyond the role of
the police in order to consider the availability of improved access to mental healthcare
and other services, to prevent tragedies involving people in crisis in encounters with the
police. There are a myriad of factors that can prevent individuals from going into crisis,
and, if they do, a variety of factors affect how they can be effectively helped. These
factors include enhanced, timely, and better access to community- and hospital-based
crisis services, early intervention programs, justice diversion programs, supportive
housing, anti-stigma policies, and so on. 90
121. All this illustrates the fact that police officers are involuntarily drawn into mental
health and related fields when dealing with a person in crisis. To make real
improvements in this area, many of the recommendations called for in this section of
the Report should be directed at agencies, institutions, and indeed governments—
whether municipal, provincial, or federal—and not at the police. But my mandate does
not permit this, nor does the TPS have direct control or responsibility over many of
these issues. Yet, if these matters are not addressed, we will not achieve the elimination
of tragedies that have resulted. In short, the police are limited in what they can do even
if they improve their role in ways advocated in this Report.
122. In view of this sobering reality, I have expressed some of my recommendations by
urging the TPS to take a leading role to advocate needed improvements in the many
surrounding areas that impact people in crisis. As noted above, the TPS is ideally suited
to play this role, and I sincerely hope its advice is followed.
123. I recommend that:
RECOMMENDATION 1: The TPS create a comprehensive police and mental
health oversight body in the form of a standing inter-disciplinary committee that
includes membership from the TPS, the 16 designated psychiatric facilities, the
three Local Health Integration Networks covering Toronto, Emergency Medical
Services, and community mental health organizations to address relevant
coordination issues, including:
(a)
Sharing Healthcare Information: developing a protocol to allow the
TPS access to an individual’s mental health information in
circumstances that would provide for a more effective response to a
person in crisis. This protocol must respect privacy laws and
physician-patient confidentiality, and should address:
i. whether, in consultation with the Government of Ontario,
the concept of the “circle of care” for information sharing can
be expanded to include the police, in circumstances
beneficial to an individual’s healthcare interests;
90
Cross-reference para.109
Police Encounters With People in Crisis |111