EDMONTON — Edmonton Police Service is getting a cash bump from the province to expand a program that redirects people on the street from the judicial system to supportive services.
Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Mike Ellis on Friday announced $600,000 for what is called the Human-centered Engagement and Liaison Partnership (HELP) program.
HELP teams, launched earlier in 2021, are supposed to connect citizens at risk of harming themselves or the community, or entering the judicial system, to housing, health or other services.
"Their whole focus of this is to stop the second, the third, the 15th, the 20th, the 50th, 100th, the 200th, or better yet, just moving people around and not getting any outcome out of it, so we do it again tomorrow or the next day," police chief Dale McFee said Friday, speaking at EPS' social policing headquarters.
"What they've basically given us is an opportunity to think differently and act differently in realizing the ultimate goal is the outcome with the people at the centre to get them some outcomes, and it's not trying to herd them into a stream."
When police calls are referred to HELP, officers partner with "social navigators" from agencies like Boyle Street, the Mustard Seed and Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society.
EPS will hire six more navigators, increasing its number to 16, with the money announced Friday.
One of the most important aspects of the program was described by McFee as "relentless follow up" to help the person avoid negative outcomes.
He said in HELP's first nine months, service calls decreased overall by seven percent. The largest reductions -- of around 20 per cent -- have been in calls for intoxication, smaller theft and suspicious persons. He called HELP a likely factor in the decreases.
Representatives from police services across the country have come to Edmonton to look at their work, the chief added.
Ellis commended McFee and the program as approaching a complex issue in an innovative way.
The cash isn't the only financial commitment the Alberta government has recently made to social issues like homelessness, mental health and addictions.
McFee was recently appointed co-chair of a group tasked with coming up with ways to reduce chronic homelessness in Alberta's capital city.
And on Wednesday, the provincial government announced $23 million to help cover operating expenses for homeless and domestic violence shelters through the winter. Of that cash, $1.5 million will go directly to opening up to 200 beds at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, which recent data suggests still does not have enough emergency shelter spaces.
Later on Friday, Elllis was scheduled to be in Red Deer for a sod turning at the site of a future 75-bed recovery facility.
