Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

Chapter 4. The Mental Health System and The Toronto Police Service
1. A universal theme, frequently conveyed to this Review by police, mental
healthcare workers, and the community of people who have experienced mental illness,
is that Ontario does not have a mental health system.
2. That is, Ontario does not have a coordinated, comprehensive approach to treating
mental health issues. Instead, there is a patchwork collection of hospitals, community
treatment organizations, housing programs, and mental health practitioners, only some
of which receive public funding—funding that is, in any event, often inadequate to meet
the needs of the community. This patchwork of resources is tasked with addressing the
significant and complex challenge of proactively treating mental illness.
3. At the same time as the system is weak, the modern trend toward the
deinstitutionalization of people with mental illness, and the modern principle that
patients should have the freedom to decline mental healthcare except in extreme cases,
mean that a substantial number of people in crisis find themselves in encounters with
the police. The police, in turn, because of the relatively disorganized state of mental
health resources, may lack sufficient awareness of the resources that do exist, as this
information is not comprehensively organized and accessible.
4. As a result of these problems, and in spite of both there being many resources
available and the efforts of the many dedicated individuals who work tirelessly to
provide mental healthcare, the reality is that the mental health “system” in Toronto is
one in which people often get lost.
5. It needs to be said that Toronto would benefit from a systematically organized,
coordinated, comprehensive, and better-funded mental health system. This suggestion
is not intended as a comment about, or a reflection on, the individuals working in
mental health in Ontario, many of whom are leaders in their fields. It is a comment on
the overall funding and coordination of mental healthcare in the province, which does
not function as a comprehensive system for care.
6. Though the mental health system is not the subject of this Review, it is
impossible to address the topic of policing people in crisis without reference to it. The
degree to which the system provides adequate care to people in crisis directly shapes the
demands placed on the Service, which provides front line emergency response to mental
health crises. As a result of both the weak mental health system from an organizational
and resource standpoint, and the high volume of police interactions with people in
crisis, the TPS has, in effect, become part of the mental healthcare system. This chapter
discusses this reality, and suggests ways of seeking to improve it from the perspective of
the Service.
7. Helping people in crisis is a challenge that must be addressed by both the mental
health system and the police, in cooperation. This chapter discusses coordination
between the mental health system and the Toronto Police Service. Topics include the
mental healthcare resources available in Toronto, the role of the TPS in serving people
in crisis, and points of intersection between the mental health system and the TPS.
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