Brockville Police receive provincial funding for mental health program

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Police services across the region are receiving funding from the provincial government that will keep critical mental health outreach and response programs afloat.

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In an event on Friday, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes MPP Steve Clark announced the Brockville Police Service, Gananoque Police Service, Leeds County OPP and Grenville County OPP will all be receiving funding to cover two years of supporting their Mobile Crisis Response Teams (MCRT).

Brockville will be receiving $240,000, Gananoque is getting $239,950, Leeds OPP is being granted $240,150, and $265,300 is being given to Grenville OPP.

Mobile Crisis Response Teams are units that consist of police officers and trained crisis workers to provide the specialized support often needed when interacting with people who are experiencing a mental health-related crisis.

“Mobile Crisis Response Teams are one of the best programs I’ve seen to assist the brave men and women of our police services with their increasingly challenging work on the front lines,” said Clark. “I’m also thankful to Brockville General Hospital, and Lanark, Leeds and Grenville Addictions and Mental Health for their support of these specialized teams. Pairing specially trained mental health professionals with police can de-escalate high-risk situations and ensure individuals in crisis and their families get the care and support they need.”

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While the OPP has been using mental health nurses as part of its mental health call response system since 2018, Brockville Police implemented the program earlier this year in April.

Since then, the MCRT has been kept busy — according to Brockville Police, the team responds to approximately seven calls per 10-hour shift, on top of conducting follow ups with people to get them to the services they need.

“This program has been invaluable to our police service,” said Brockville Police Chief Mark Noonan. “Having that expertise and that professional element from the health side is so important. Probably 80 per cent of the calls we go to have a component of mental health or addictions issues.”

The MCRT was originally planned to have a one-year trial run before making any further funding commitments, but due to the success of the program, this funding will now tack on another two years for the program, with the hopes of it eventually becoming a permanent unit.

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Now that it has a response team that is seeing success, Brockville Police is working on developing a new team on the preventative side to tackle the issue from both sides.

“With how we’ve handled our resources and grant funding, we’re going to try and keep two programs going,” said Noonan. “The new one will be focused on outreach, which will expand that preventative care. This would focus on helping people before they reach the crisis stage. We’re currently in the process of identifying a person to work with an officer out of that unit.”

In a separate but related announcement at the same event, Clark announced even more funding to be directed to three of the police forces, with this money to be used for various initiatives involving community policing.

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Brockville Police Service will receive $432,357 for increased investigative capacity for guns, gangs and drug-related crime, as well as an additional $56,208 to support the Community Outreach Program, which includes youth-at-risk initiatives.

Grenville County OPP is being granted $363,218 for the expansion of the Connect Youth Core Program to North Grenville District High School, as well as sustaining the enhanced MCRT program. Grenville OPP will also receive an additional $28,104 for enhancing the MCRT training and support for Connect Youth Core Program.

Lastly, Gananoque Police Service is being given $60,893 to maintain and enhance MCRT and expanded youth outreach programming.

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