City News

Police forces across B.C. will have another tool in their belt come Thursday, as the province begins to roll out a program that it says will help officers deal with those facing mental-health or substance-use crises.

Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth explained Wednesday that the Port Moody Police Department will begin using HealthIM, a digital public safety program, on March 7, before the program is rolled out to other jurisdictions over the next two years.

“Police officers in our province have seen first-hand the impacts and challenges when responding to mental-health or substance-use crisis-related calls,” said Farnworth.

Global News

The Alberta government will continue the rollout of a program designed to help police officers respond to mental health crises.

The digital program, named HealthIM, will give police officers information to help someone experiencing a mental health emergency. The program will also help increase officers’ safety and ensure effective use of emergency resources, the province said.

The Edmonton Police Service (EPS) will be the first police service to start using HealthIM beginning in July, and the Alberta government plans to expand the program to other areas over the next year in a phased approach.

CBC News

It's a call police agencies across Canada get all too often — someone in mental distress threatening to harm themselves or others around them. But Brandon police say a new app […] has helped more easily de-escalate situations and connect people to the most appropriate resource.

Police in the southwestern Manitoba city began using an app called HealthIM last summer.

The app guides officers through a clinical risk assessment — a number of questions focused on the behaviours and actions of the person they have encountered.

Vancouver Sun

Emergency physicians at Surrey Memorial Hospital are calling a handy new app being used by Delta police a “transformational change” that will improve care for individuals experiencing a mental-health crisis.

Delta police became the first police force in B.C. to use the HealthIM app that’s linked to the Surrey hospital’s emergency department. Police responding to calls involving a mental-health concern use a 25-question checkbox tool based on their observations of the individual. Once they input the information into the app on their mobile phones, they see a score that determines whether an individual needs to be apprehended under the Mental Health Act and taken to the ER.

The Globe and Mail

Let’s say a police officer is called to a person’s home. They’ll probably go inside to check out their living conditions, chat with family or roommates and observe the person on the way to hospital. If they know what to look for, these are details that might be valuable to time-strapped hospital staff. But often, police officers say, they don’t have an easy way to share this information.

One Canadian-made solution being adopted by departments across the country is a mobile program called HealthIM, which gives police a medical checklist to assess a person’s risk level for self-harm, harm to others and an inability to care for themselves.