Manitoba community dealing with rise in mental health calls

Altona police are seeing increased mental health calls, and it’s putting a strain on limited resources.

Police officers in Altona are concerned over an increase in the number of mental health calls in the community.

“I’ve been here 35 years, and the calls are increasing every year,” said Dan Defer, Altona Police Chief.

“There just seems to be no end in sight on that.”

While Defer said this is a province-wide issue for smaller rural communities, he is concerned this increase will tie up the limited resources his department has for staffing.

Earlier this month, his colleague spent more than 20 hours on a single call responding to an individual in need of mental health support.

“Other ones where we actually have to arrest someone under the Mental Health Act, that’s where the resources get tied up,” Defer said.

“We have to have officers guarding patients, and we can’t take resources off the road. So that means that we’re calling in off-duty officers to either guard or patrol on the streets.”

Defer said there are currently nine full-time police officers on staff in Altona. He said there are challenges for people living in the community with little to no staff to address mental health concerns.

“In Altona, we do not have mental health professionals at the hospital here,” Defer said.

“For us, our closest facility would be Boundary Trails Health Centre.”

He said if people can’t seek support in nearby Morden or Winkler, their next option is to drive to Winnipeg, more than an hour away from the community.

When individuals can’t find the support they need, Defer and his officers respond, often as a last resort.

The police chief is calling on the province for additional support. He would like to see the implementation of an institutional safety officer in the Southern Health Region.

Defer said there is an ongoing discussion in the City of Winnipeg to implement more of these officers, following the province’s decision to add ISOs to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg in April 2024.

ISOs are trained in public safety and crime prevention and are responsible for maintaining safety and security in an assigned facility.

He believes they would be very beneficial to freeing up his other officers based on his limited staff.

“If we detain someone under the Mental Health Act, we take them to the hospital for assessments,” Defer said.

“We have to guard them, and so we have to stay there until we’re cleared by the facility. If the facility were to have the ISOs on it, in theory, we could turn the people over to the ISO to be monitored, which then frees up our officers to come back on the road.”

Despite the increase in mental health calls from the community tying up his staff, Defer said to not hesitate to reach out if under duress.

“The other side of the coin is at no point would we ever suggest not seeking mental health assistance,” he said.

“That’s why people will come to us. At least we can direct (them) into which way to go and who to speak to.”

A spokesperson for Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the province’s budget includes funding to hire 35 new mental health workers to support police. They also noted 95 ISOs have been hired so far to help keep health-care spaces safe.

“We’re working with communities across the province to assess which facilities would benefit from ISOs and we’ll continue to bring more supports to our health care system,” the spokesperson said.