Vancouver mayor pitches 311 dispatch team for addictions and mental health response

Sep 20 2022, 9:18 pm

Forward Together incumbent mayor Kennedy Stewart is promising to expand the mandate of the 311 phone hotline to serve as the dispatch of a new mobile team to handle non-emergency addictions and mental health response.

The so-called Health and Addictions Response Team (HART) would respond to situations such as someone sleeping in a park or in front of a store, as an alternative to calling 911 for a police response.

HART will initially have a team size of 25 staff, including specialist homeless outreach staff with enhanced medical training, mental health and addictions counsellors, and bylaw officers.

An operating budget of $5 million annually would be provided to HART starting in 2023.

“Being homeless or mentally ill is not a crime and most of these situations are not emergencies,” said Stewart in a statement today announcing this platform promise.

“What is most often needed is de-escalation, immediate food, water and clothing, and connecting those in need with existing provincial services such as emergency housing, health care and income assistance programs. HART fills this gap.”

Forward Together party asserts the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) sees about 700 calls for service daily, with most of these calls not related to criminal code offences. They say HART could reduce the current cost and burden being placed on the VPD, firefighters, and paramedics for their role in responding to the exceedingly high volume of opioid addictions and mental health-related costs. HART would serve as an “interface” with existing 911 services “only when absolutely necessary.”

But the VPD states that while it sees about 700 calls daily, it asserts that 84% of all mental health calls involve violence, danger, or crime, and 26% are from health professionals — such as nurses, counsellors, and mental health workers — who are asking for help from police as they do not feel personally safe in responding to a call on their own.

Furthermore, 12% of the calls to police are due to individuals with weapons.

As well, an overwhelming number of those living with mental illness are law-abiding and non-violent, but they are 23 times more likely to be a victim of a violent crime.

In contrast, the ABC Vancouver party of mayoral candidate Ken Sim is promising to hire 200 additional public safety and healthcare workers to expand the existing Car 87/88 program of pairing a mental health nurse with a VPD officer in an unmarked car for non-emergency addictions and mental health response. This includes hiring 100 additional VPD officers and 100 additional mental health nurses at a cost of about $20 million annually.

Forward Together’s HART is similar to the OneCity party’s proposed new program of Peer Assisted Care Teams (PACTs) that would serve as the “first responders” to mental health and addictions emergencies. PACTs would not rule out a police response, as the teams will “call in police backup should a situation escalate.” OneCity asserts a similar program in Eugene, Oregon saves the municipal government about USD$8.5 million annually by responding to 17% of police calls.

Forward Together is running a total of seven candidates, including the incumbent mayor and six city councillor candidates, but none for the Park Board and School Board. OneCity has named four candidates for City Council, three candidates for the Park Board, and five candidates for the School Board, but it does not have a mayoral candidate.

The civic election is scheduled for October 15, 2022.

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