Advice from a psychiatric nurse now a 911 phone call away in remote parts of Saskatchewan | CBC News

Saskatchewan residents who call 911 during a mental health crisis, and RCMP officers trying to defuse a potentially deadly confrontation will now be able to receive advice from a psychiatric nurse, the Mounties say.

Following a successful, year-long pilot program, four registered psychiatric nurses are now available Monday to Thursday from noon to midnight, as well as 24-hour coverage Friday to Sunday, at the RCMP’s operational command centre (OCC) in Regina, which handles  911 calls from residents in need of police service in small towns and rural areas across the province.

Permanent funding is being provided by the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the Mounties say in a news release.

The pilot project was modelled after a system in the United Kingdom, where mental health professionals with access to medical records are placed inside regional hubs to both advise officers on the street and answer calls from the public.

“We are extremely happy to see our project come to fruition,” said Jocelyn James, manager of the OCC.

“We worked hard to adapt a European model to the reality of Saskatchewan’s remote regions, and to develop processes that allow two very different professions to work together. It was all well worth it. Today, the four nurses are fully trained, they have spent the last three weeks gathering experience and they are ready for the holiday season – the season during which, unfortunately, we see an increase in mental health calls every year.”

During the 12-month pilot:

• 99.8 per cent of callers reporting a mental health crisis agreed to speak with the nurse.
• 80 per cent of the callers assessed by a nurse immediately received referrals to be admitted to a mental health and/or addiction service,
• 71 per cent of the callers assessed by a nurse avoided being driven by a police officer to an emergency department to get a diagnosis and/or treatment.

The nurses will have access to callers’ health records and history, unlike the RCMP. If there is an RCMP-involved crisis the nurses can verbally discuss a caller’s health record, but police, medical and personal information will be kept private.

In 2020 alone the RCMP received 4,640 mental health calls to its centre. During the first six months of the pilot project its received 2,474 calls from people with mental health issues.