GUELPH -- A program that partners Guelph police with mental health professionals is set to expand, but the board that oversees the service says the provincial funding is not enough.
The Integrated Mobile Police and Crisis Team, also known as IMPACT, was created in 2015 in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association.
"We're able to bring that lens and that knowledge to the situation that we just can't expect every officer to have," said Aleah Wagner, manager of Mental Health and Justice with the Waterloo-Wellington CMHA.
The team features crisis response coordinators, like Jeanine Kushnir, accompanying Guelph police officers on mental health and wellness checks to provide expertise in intervention.
"As a team we can provide better care to the individuals," she said. "We're here to build rapport and the ability to understand what the client is needing in that moment."
Officers are able to request IMPACT at their discretion when a call comes in.
"It really makes a difference having them there," said Const. Kyle Grant of Guelph Police Service. "We can lean on their expertise, their experiences, and their training."
The program recently received $500,000 in provincial funding to add two more people to the team in the new year.
"It's routine for us to hear officers requesting for IMPACT to attend to their location and then several minutes later another set of officers are requesting IMPACT," said Grant.
The increase in funding will allow their services to extend its hours from 8 a.m. to midnight seven days a week.
However, Wagner says it's not enough, as the team only responds to about third of requests for help.
"Mental health and crisis and addictions don't stop at midnight," she said.
Guelph mayor Cam Guthrie, a member of the police board, is now calling on the government to provide an additional $700,000 to meet demand.
"Get us the extra seven that we will need for the IMPACT team to be at full complement 24/7," he said. "We need to look in the mirror, we need to look internally and see what we can do."
