The survey conducted by the Crisis Centre of BC, June 3, 2021

Report to the Special Parliamentary Committee on Police Act Reform

The Crisis Centre of BC works with community organizations, police, 911, health providers, and people with lived experience of mental health crisis response to build crisis response that is respectful, compassionate, supportive, and effective.

As part of this work, in June 2021 we emailed 10,000 of our donors and newsletter recipients and asked them to share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences of mental health crisis intervention. Our goal was to understand what is most important to the people we serve, and to bring their perspectives forward in our conversations with ECOMM/911, police, ambulance, emergency departments, mental health teams, and, in particular, the Special Parliamentary Committee on Police Act Reform.

The survey focused on the following open-ended questions:

• Have you ever had an interaction with emergency responders during a mental health crisis? What was that experience like?
• Have you had friends or family members experience interactions with emergency responders during a mental health crisis? What was that experience like?
• What role do you think police should play in mental health crisis response?

The survey email — which was opened by 46% of our donors and 22% of our newsletter recipients — resulted in 71 individuals completing the survey. Given the very personal experiences our respondents shared, we are holding their responses confidential and anonymous. 

KEY THEMES IN MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS EXPERIENCES

Our 71 respondents described 88 separate incidents of emergency responders involved in mental health crisis response. Emergency responders referenced included:

• 53 interactions with police
• 22 interactions with emergency departments/hospitals
• 15 interactions with crisis lines
• 4 interactions with paramedics
• 2 interactions with Ministry of Child & Family Development staff
• 1 interaction with a drug treatment centre
• 1 interaction with the 811 provincial health information phone line
• 1 interaction with firefighters

Most incidents involved more than one emergency responder.

We coded 99 descriptions of interactions with emergency responders into three broad categories: negative, mixed, and positive. Respondents described 65 of 99 interactions as negative (65%), 13% as mixed, and 21% as positive.

Experiences with police during a mental health crisis followed the same pattern: 31 of 53 descriptions (58%) of mental health crisis response involving police were described as negative, 6% as mixed, and 36% as positive.

Characteristics of positive experiences with police

Respondents described positive interactions with police as friendly, supportive, compassionate, patient, calm, neutral, and professional. In some cases, respondents described heroic levels of patience, calmness, and gentleness while establishing safe crisis resolutions with people at imminent risk of suicide.

Characteristics of negative experiences with police

The words “traumatizing” and “scary” appeared regularly in descriptions of negative interactions with police during a mental health crisis. Respondents identified a number of things that made interaction with police more frightening:

• Uniformed police officers
• Armed police officers
• Hearing sirens, especially if a silent approach was requested
• Rapid move to handcuffing
• Police officers who raised their voices and gave orders and seemed impatient
  
• Being informed police are required by policy to handcuff during transport to hospital, even if the person being apprehended was non-violent and consenting to go to hospital

Other respondents described feeling stigmatized or judged if they or their family member or friend had previous suicide attempts, or were dealing with addictions. Respondents who were confronted and handcuffed in front of roommates, colleagues, or bystanders described feeling embarrassed.

The third area of negative interaction with police were cases where police brought persons in crisis to hospital, only for hospital staff to determine the crisis did not warrant hospitalization, and the individual would be released. In some cases, people described being released without any way of getting home, having been taken under duress with no time to get a jacket or their wallet, and without return transport. Depending on the level of emotional distress, a person in crisis could find themselves taken to hospital and released many times over; their crisis experiences became a revolving door.

Characteristics of mixed experiences with police

Mixed experiences focused on the lack of options provided by police for further support. Respondents appreciated that police had the capacity to respond rapidly to a complex situation, but were disappointed by  the limited options for practical help they could provide , short of hospitalization.

REASONS FOR AND AGAINST POLICE INVOLVEMENT IN MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS RESPONSE

All of the 71 respondents  preferred limiting the role of police in mental health crisis response in some way. Some respondents suggested limiting the reasons police would be involved to situations where police were closest or if there was an imminent risk of serious bodily harm. . Others thought only police officers with calm, compassionate, non-judgemental temperaments should be assigned to mental health crisis response, and trained extensively in mental health and trauma-informed care.

Three individuals believed that if police were involved, the hospital would be more likely to take the situation seriously and opt for immediate treatment, although this was not what some of the other survey experienced 

NEXT STEPS

This survey is an initial exploration of the experiences and opinions of British Columbians related to building a robust “least restrictive, lowest cost” model of crisis care designed to shift our reliance on police for emergency mental health response.

Future surveys will reach out to individuals with lived experience of mental health crisis, especially to those with marginalized viewpoints.