Police have become the default first responders to mental health crises, a role that links assumptions about mental illness with risk and danger, often with harmful consequences for people in crisis. Photo from Flickr.

The Brandon Police Service (BPS) recently announced plans to launch a crisis response unit that will pair a Brandon police officer with a mental health professional to assist in responding to mental health calls. Winnipeg launched a similar program in 2021.

In his announcement of the crisis response unit, BPS Chief Tyler Bates indicated that police have historically “responded to mental health calls for service alone.” Bates is correct. Since deinstitutionalization—the movement during which mental health patients were discharged into the community—there has been a decline in mental health spending over time, and people with mental health issues have been left with few community resources.

Communities across Canada have since become saturated with people experiencing mental health crises and, without adequate infrastructure, care, and treatment, these program delivery issues have created conditions........

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