Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

3. Accessibility of information regarding mental health services
29. The importance of accessible, comprehensive information on mental health
services to both the TPS and the public cannot be overstated. One senior health
practitioner estimated that there are over 400 mental health-related organizations in
Toronto alone. Access to information regarding each organization, its specific services,
location, hours, and other pertinent details is an important need, both to enable the TPS
to help people in crisis and to enable people to seek help themselves.
30. Several stakeholders noted that a comprehensive database listing all mental
health-related organizations in Toronto does not exist. Maintaining a complete and upto-date
database is a significant undertaking.
31. ConnexOntario is Ontario’s most comprehensive directory of information
regarding mental health services. In addition to an online directory, it operates three
confidential telephone helplines and one-on-one online chats to advise people regarding
available help for mental health issues, drug and alcohol issues, and problem gambling
issues. ConnexOntario aims to maintain an up-to-date, accurate database of available
services, how those services are accessed, and how long the wait to access the services
may be. 22 However, the Review has been told that ConnexOntario omits certain
organizations in Toronto, and lacks information regarding the current capacity of
organizations to take on new patients.
32. The Vancouver Police Department’s (VPD) “Dashboard” system is an innovative,
user-friendly software tool, implemented in collaboration between the VPD and
Vancouver Coastal Health, which integrates police and mental health information into a
single database, which is then used by police officers in the field. Its key features
include: (a) an aerial view of the city that charts the location of all mental health
resources, with icons indicating different types of resources; (b) up-to-date information
on average wait times in all emergency departments at psychiatric facilities, including
specific information on average wait times for Mental Health Act apprehensions; (c)
data on the distribution of patients to different psychiatric facilities by the police; (d)
officers’ input on whether mental health issues were a factor in any given call, for future
records; and (e) data on the city’s top repeat users of emergency mental health services,
as defined by, among other things, whether they are clients of ACT teams, whether they
have been apprehended under the Mental Health Act in the last 15 days, whether they
have had negative police contact in the last 15 days, whether they have committed a
violent or substance-related offence in the last 60 days, or have caused a disturbance or
the VPD has observed other suspicious behaviour in the last 60 days. 23
33. Of course, any sharing of mental health information with the police has to be
done with appropriate privacy safeguards and in a manner that respects physicianpatient
confidentiality. Furthermore, sharing of mental health information must be
22
ConnexOntario, “About us” (2014), online: ConnexOntario .
23
Staff Sergeant Howard Tran, Vancouver Police Department, “Data Collection and Collaborative Measures of Success & Outcomes”
(Presented to CACP/MHCC Conference, Toronto, ON, 2014) [unpublished]; “Emergency Wait Times: Vancouver, Richmond and
North Shore Emergency Department wait times” (2014), online: .
Police Encounters With People in Crisis |89