mental health

The homeless, mentally ill man holding a knife is surrounded by officers — guns drawn — in a parking lot.

“Drop the knife!” an officer is heard yelling on fuzzy cellphone video shot by a passing motorist.

Seconds later, a blaze of shots ring out — more than 40 — and the man drops to the ground.

The rules governing operations at the Canada Border Services Agency’s YVR holding cells contain a suicide prevention policy, but it is unclear whether security staff monitoring the cells had implemented it in the case of a Mexican woman who hanged herself in December.

Under the rules, security personnel contracted by CBSA to monitor the cells are supposed to receive training to help them identify potentially suicidal individuals, according to a policy manual obtained by The Sun under the Access to Information Act.

Recent investigations by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner in both Ontario and British Columbia have shed significant light on the troubling practices of some police services in disclosing the mental-health information of Canadians. At the heart of this issue is to whom this most sensitive information is being released, and when.

Social disorder calls that involve police dealing with people suffering from mental health issues don’t appear in crime statistics, but they’re soaking up more time and resources each year, say Nanaimo RCMP.

Supt. Mark Fisher, the detachment’s commanding officer, said Nanaimo isn’t unique and that the rising trend is taxing community resources to varying degrees across the province.

Mission’s campus of care will include a residence for mental health clients next year.

The former Pleasant View Care Home will be converted into a new 54-bed mental health residential campus, Fraser Health announced Wednesday. It will include three sections, including a 19-bed residential care facility, a 22-bed assisted living centre, and 13 bachelor suites.

The new facility will offer three levels of care for mental health patients, said Meryl McDowell, director for mental health and substance use services for Fraser Health.

Mayor Won't Share Details of Deliberations 

Time to test your memory, people. 

Remember last September when Mayor Gregor Robertson and Police Chief Jim Chu told us how this city was in a mental health crisis? 

Remember when one month later Robertson announced at city council that he was creating a task force to tackle the problem of mental health - and addictions? 

I remember all this because I wrote about it. 

But, you ask, what ever happened to that task force? 

I was thinking the same thing.