Staffing issues limiting expansion of crisis intervention program: Winnipeg police chief

Winnipeg's police chief says he'd like to expand an initiative that pairs mental health professionals with police to help people in crisis — but staffing issues are getting in the way.

The Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis, or ARCC, program was set to expand its service from five days a week to seven days a week, but can't do so yet because of a clinician shortage, according to the Winnipeg Police Service.

Under the program, which is a collaboration between the police service and the provincial Shared Health organization, mental health professionals are sent with plainclothes police officers to non-criminal crisis situations. The goal is to improve responses to mental health calls and take some strain off emergency rooms.

ARCC's pilot phase, which began in 2021, was labelled a success and in June, the provincial government committed more than $400,000 to expanding it.

The problem is finding the people to staff it, said Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth.

"I think we're all aware that clinicians in general … they're short all over the place," he told reporters Friday following a Winnipeg Police Board meeting, at which a report with an evaluation of the program was presented.

"We're working with Shared Health, we have a pool of clinicians to draw from, but they have other duties as well." 

The response program was involved in 882 police events involving 530 people during the pilot phase, a June news release from the province said. A little over 80 per cent of the incidents were resolved through ARCC. 

And in 91 per cent of cases, individuals involved in the program were able to remain in the community after receiving mental health support, rather than having to be taken to an emergency department, the release said.

During the pilot period, there was a 29 per cent drop in the number of patients taken to emergency departments by police for mental health assessments, according to the province.

"I think it's demonstrated a path for dealing with people that are in crisis to be able to either keep them in the community with the supports that they need, or divert them into the program that they need," said Smyth.

"And that's where the [mental health] clinician comes in, so importantly. Without the clinician, we'd be forced to go in through the emergency rooms of the hospitals, and that's not the way we want to do that." 

Shared Health said in a Friday statement to CBC that it's committed to expanding support for the program.

The organization is working toward hiring more staff, beginning with an internal posting that went up earlier this month before proceeding to publicize the job opportunities to external candidates.

Shared Health is optimistic the positions will be filled "relatively soon," the statement said. 

In the meantime, Shared health says ARCC services continue to be available from 9 a.m to 9 p.m., five days per week.