A mobile, community-led crisis response team based in six communities across British Columbia is showing that police don’t have to be involved in mental health emergency calls.
CRCL, pronounced “circle,” was previously known as the Peer Assisted Care Team program. It offers people 13 and older help during mental health crises, in Metro Vancouver’s North Shore, Victoria, New Westminster, Comox Valley, Prince George and Kamloops.
Since January 2023 five teams have responded to nearly 10,000 calls. Ninety-nine per cent of those calls were resolved without involving police, Kim Mackenzie, director of policy at the Canadian Mental Health Association B.C. division, told The Tyee. The Kamloops team is just launching now, she added.
The CMHA developed and administers CRCL. The program is funded by the B.C. government.
CRCL offers a break from how mental health calls unfold across the rest of the province, where police have become the default responder to mental health crises, Mackenzie said.
Involving police in mental health crises occasionally has devastating consequences.
In 2015, Myles Gray, who was bipolar, died after being beaten by Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»police while he was possibly suffering from a manic episode, according to his sister.
In 2019, Kyaw Din, who lived with schizophrenia, was shot and killed by Maple Ridge police as they tried to take him to the hospital.
In 2021, Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»police shot and killed Chester Libo-On, who may have been delusional or suicidal.
In 2022, North Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»RCMP shot and killed Dani Cooper, who had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and was suffering from psychosis.
It’s not clear if these deaths could have been prevented if the people killed had had access to other mental health supports before they ended up in crisis.
CRCL was created through advocacy from people with mental health and substance use challenges and people from Black communities, Indigenous communities and other communities of colour, who wanted a mental health-specific response to people experiencing crisis, Mackenzie said.
CRCL is not integrated into 911 services, although the Union of BC Municipalities and the CMHA have been advocating for a mental health response to be added as a fourth option to fire, police and ambulance.
Instead, people can text or call their local CRCL team to request help. Phone numbers for each community can be found on the program’s website, .
Some police refer calls to CRCL; RCMP does not
In some communities, Mackenzie said, police officers will refer calls to CRCL. And if a call involves a life-threatening situation, CRCL will escalate it to police, she added.
But this happens very rarely. In the last two years, about one per cent of calls CRCL responded to needed to involve police, she said.
In a presentation to the New Westminster Police Department, CRCL co-ordinator Nicole Sto Thomas said police can refer calls to CRCL when a person is in distress but not to the point where they could be detained under the Mental Health Act, or if a person is experiencing paranoia or psychosis and thinks people are breaking into their home when there is actually no threat.
It’s not clear to what extent police would refer calls to CRCL without any police involvement.
In an email, New Westminster Police Department Chief Const. Paul Hyland said referrals could happen if officers have been asked to check on a person’s well-being and can confirm the person is not in danger, or if officers believe a person could benefit from CRCL’s services.
Referring people to CRCL works to free up police resources to “respond to more appropriate calls for service, and that’s a benefit to the citizens we serve,” Hyland added.
The Victoria Police Department sends an officer and a mental health professional to respond to mental health-related calls whenever possible and will refer calls to CRCL once police can confirm there are no safety issues, Cheryl Major, spokesperson for the Victoria Police Department, told The Tyee in an email.
Major added the VicPD has a “great relationship” with CRCL and is supportive of its work. Hyland said the New Westminster Police Department has a “positive and highly collaborative” relationship with CRCL.
The RCMP is the police force in Comox Valley, Prince George, Kamloops and North Vancouver. When asked by The Tyee what calls the RCMP might refer to CRCL, spokesperson Staff Sgt. Kris Clark said, “I can’t think of a situation where police would be in a position to defer such a call to another agency.”
“De-escalation must occur before any additional resources, such as a mental health nurse/practitioner, can be leveraged to assess the subject,” Clark added. “Every mental health-related call is unpredictable.”
By law all police in B.C. are required to take crisis intervention and de-escalation training every three years.
How a CRCL call works
Mackenzie defines a mental health crisis as an acute, short-term incident where a person is no longer able to cope on their own, is unable to access the resources typically available to them and requires urgent intervention and support. This could include thoughts of self-harm, thoughts of suicide and/or extreme panic or anxiety.
Mackenzie said CRCL teams may refer calls to other emergency responders or work in collaboration with them if someone has a weapon and an intention to use it, or if there’s an overdose or an active suicide attempt in progress.
Anyone can call or text CRCL to connect with a dispatcher who will assess or triage if necessary. They can dispatch a team who will respond in plain clothes and an unmarked car.
The goal is to offer a person-centred, compassionate, trauma-informed response, Mackenzie said. The team seeks consent from the person in crisis and works with them to provide safety and support until that crisis is resolved, she added.
This can look like helping rehouse youth, helping connect people at supervised consumption sites with resources or helping an unhoused person who is clearly in distress without ever involving police, she said.
CRCL does a followup within 48 hours to check on a person’s well-being, to check if their safety plan is working well and to ask if they’ve connected with longer-term services like peer support, housing or community or mental health services.
A CRCL team consists of a member with professional mental health experience and a member with lived experience who can say, “I’ve been there,” Mackenzie said. All members complete 100 hours of training in de-escalation, mental health and substance use, situational awareness and scene safety, first aid and suicide intervention training.
Mackenzie said crisis response teams are “typically much less expensive” than police-only teams. CRCL helps reduce health care-related costs by diverting unnecessary emergency department visits, paramedic resources and inpatient services, she added.
The age cutoff has been set at 13 because children and adolescents require a slightly different crisis response, she said.
CRCL employs around 100 people in full-time and casual positions and could be expanded across the province if needed, Mackenzie said.
