The Belleville Police Service is implementing a new program to improve the way officers and local health care providers handle mental health calls.
Inspector Sheri Meeks gave a presentation on the Health IM project Tuesday, which she says will provide greater support to people in crisis through collaboration between the police force, Belleville General Hospital and other community agencies like Addictions and Mental Health Hastings and Prince Edward.
Meeks noted that city police officers are already handling an increased amounts of mental health calls and doing a good job, but this will add even more support for them and the people they’re helping.
Officers are currently undergoing training for the program, which will officially launch later in the year and Meeks says the plan is to use the data from the program to support the creation of a mobile crisis unit in the city, that could respond to certain mental health-related calls.
