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.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Western University researchers unlock potential 'cure' for ALS
New research out of London, Ont.'s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease's progression.
What Michael Cohen said on the stand in Trump hush money case
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial took the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Collapsed Baltimore bridge span comes down with a boom after crews set off chain of explosives
Crews conducted a controlled demolition Monday to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Police release 3D images of young child found in an Ontario river two years ago
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
Kamala Harris drops F-bomb during White House live-stream
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
Behind the barricades: How protesters spend their first days in a new encampment
Students in Montreal describe life in a newly erected encampment in Montreal as a whirlwind of preparations, from facing rain and a potential police crackdown to setting up a space for the exchange of ideas.
Security video caught admitted serial killer disposing of bodies in Winnipeg garbage bins
Security video caught admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on multiple late-night outings, disposing of body parts in nearby garbage bins and dumpsters in the middle of the night.
Next 48 hours will be 'extremely challenging' for B.C. wildfire crews near Fort Nelson: officials
A wildfire burning dangerously close to Fort Nelson, B.C., has grown to more than 50 square kilometres, and officials are warning that the blaze's behaviour is expected to become more volatile over the next 48 hours.
Southern Ont. man charged with attempted murder in Timmins shooting
One of two men wanted for attempted murder in Timmins has been arrested, while a warrant has been issued for a second suspect, who fled police on foot.