Band-Aid or a good first step? Vancouver mayoral candidate wants more cop-nurse teams for mental health calls

A Vancouver businessman who wants to be the city’s next mayor is calling on the expansion of a long-running police-medical partnership to address mental health crises, but a community advocate is lukewarm to what he considers a Band-Aid solution. 

Ken Sim and the ABC Vancouver party announced one of their first acts if he secures the mayor’s chair will be to requisition the hiring of 100 new police officers and 100 mental health nurses to dramatically expand the “Car 87 Program”. 

Pioneered in Vancouver, the team-based response to calls involving suspected mental illness or distress has been in place for decades and is used in other B.C. communities, but Sim wants to see it dramatically expanded.

While the mayor of Vancouver chairs the Vancouver police board and has influence on VPD priorities, the nurses are employees of Vancouver Coastal Health, which doesn’t take marching orders from municipal leaders. 

“As mayor of Vancouver and with a majority on council, I think it's our responsibility to identify what our issues are and public safety and mental health are big issues,” Sim said when pressed by CTV News to explain how he’d convince VCH to dedicate scant health-care resources to honour his campaign promise.

He dismissed the issue of hiring nurses during a nation-wide staffing shortage, pointing to his co-founding of a private nursing company 21 years ago.

When asked whether he’d consider implementing direct employment for nurses by the city or VPD, he said "we'll leave the hiring of police officers and operational issues to Vancouver police.” 

THE RIGHT PRIORITY FOR MILLIONS IN FUNDING?

While community advocates have long argued for a healthcare-primary rather than police-oriented and criminalizing approach to mental health crises, dedicating ABC’s goal of $20 million dollars to so many new police officers isn’t getting a warm welcome.

“I don't like it because it blames the victim,” said Coast Mental Health CEO, Darrell Burnham, who said it’s a Band-Aid solution to a visible problem. “They're homeless, they’re on the street, they have nothing, and the recovery from that is long and arduous -- but it starts with a home.” 

While he welcomed an increase in Car 87 teams, Burnham believes 100 is far more than required when the issue of distressed, disruptive and potentially dangerous outbursts by mentally-unstable people is better addressed with a long-term approach.

“I think they really need to go upstream because what you see on the street is evidence of a system not working,” he said. “What hasn't happened in Vancouver for a long time is a really comprehensive plan for mental health and these types of emergencies that engages not only the city but BC Housing, Vancouver Coastal Health and the not-for-profit sector.”

AGENCIES MUM AMID POLITICIZATION

CTV News asked Vancouver police, Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health to discuss the resources, options and pathways for people apprehended under the Mental Health Act, but they all demurred, citing an unwillingness to get involved in the issue as the civic election enters its final months of campaigning. 

None of the other three mayoral candidates was available or replied to requests to discuss ABC’s policy proposal.

While an encounter with a specially-trained nurse is likely to be less traumatizing and more helpful than police-alone, the patient’s long-term options after they’re no longer in crisis are a provincial responsibility: housing, mental health supports, potential addiction treatment, all are provincially-funded.

Sim insists while he’d work well with the province and could find the $20 million required for his plan within the city’s current operating budget.

“As a chartered accountant and former forensic accountant, I know we'll be able to find the money without increasing taxes,” he said. “Is it the whole solution? Absolutely not. Is it a meaningful start? Absolutely.”