Nurses, police officers teaming up to handle crisis calls in North Bay

North Bay police and the North Bay Regional Health Centre have teamed up to help people in the community iwho are experiencing a mental health crisis.

Specially trained officers and registered nurses are working together as part of a mobile crisis team, who will respond to calls related to mental health and addiction.

Troy Kennedy, a nurse with the mobile crisis team, says the goal is to connect individuals with community agencies that can provide ongoing support, rather than pushing them into an already congested hospital system.

"We'll often get calls from police officers asking for assistance [with people] who may be at risk to themselves or others," Kennedy said. "[We help] to help determine safety and suitability, to see if there's anything we can do to circumvent them coming through hospital all the time."

North Bay Police responded to 2,700 mental health calls in 2017

In 2017, North Bay police responded to 2,700 mental health calls. 400 of those calls required assessment at the hospital.

Kennedy said the goal of the mobile crisis teams is eventually to connect individuals with community agencies that can provide ongoing support.

"That would be kind of the ideal situation," he said. "However if the person does pose a personal safety risk to themselves or others, then at that point we would obviously be looking to get them in to the hospital, maybe be assessed through emerg, possibly a psychiatric assessment at that time as well."

"Care is always better provided I think within the community, as opposed to constantly coming through the hospital system," Kennedy said. "So the more we can connect people with the agencies, the more and longer we can keep them in the community, I think the better benefit they're going to have for themselves."

Kennedy says the team also follows people within the hospital system and works with doctors to help determine care going forward.