CMHA Grey Bruce (Photo by Nathan Shubert)
The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Grey Bruce is marking four years of working with Hanover Police.
CMHA Mobile Mental Health and Addiction Response Team (MMHART) Program Manager Ashley Timmerman says the 24/7 service in Grey Bruce has about 13 full time staff to assist in ER departments and local police services across the region.
“They work along side police, they go out into the community on calls with police. They do follow up calls if a police officer has seen someone on the weekend and they don’t have a mental health worker handy but they want someone to connect with the individual to make sure they have resources and referrals,” says Timmerman.
In April, the CMHA dedicated one full-time clinician to the Hanover Police.
Since their assignment to the town, police say the clinician has made 39 in-person assessments, 22 follow ups, and several referrals to community partners for assistance and support. Additionally, 19 people have been diverted away from the hospital who would have otherwise found themselves in the local ER to be seen by a physician.
Over the past four years, Timmerman says the need for the program in Hanover has been pretty steady.
“I think we have just seen a continued improvement in the ability to get police to pick up the phone and call us and that has really been strengthened over the last couple of years. At first, we didn’t have as many staff as we do now, so there was a hesitation sometimes to pick up the phone,” says Timmerman.
She hopes the program will continue to evolve to support people in need, adding more funding will allow the organization to bring on more staff.
“We are not applying for funding to enhance our current staffing, but I know that the local police services have applied for a grant, and that grant would allow them to enhance their existing services, so usually what that means is it gives the us the ability to hire more staff, and in turn, that gives more coverage to the station,” says Timmerman.