Early results from a joint mental health initiative between the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo-Wellington and the University of Guelph could help envision similar programs for university students across Canada.
The Integrated Mobile Police and Crisis Team (IMPACT) launched last year at U of G. It involves a CMHA crisis respond coordinator and police officer jointly responding to a mental health crisis on campus.
A year after launching, the program is seeing some positive results. A release from CMHA said the IMPACT program had 116 recorded visits last year and an IMPACT U of G worker attended 13 live calls, with four diverted from a police response, and 10 diverted from hospitals.
Aleah Wagner, manager of IMPACT with CMHA, said it is about providing students with the best and least intrusive services and provide a linkage to to other wellness services and programs at U of G and in the community.
"It's really about the right service at the right time and at the right place. What that means is prior to this, the option might've been an apprehension for them, because special constables services didn't have access to mental health services after hours, because now that we have added that in, we're seeing that diversion rate increase right there," said Wagner.
"We want to, as much as possible, to divert from a hospitals, and really look at if there are other ways to divert from a police response at all, and we have been wildly successful in doing that," said Wagner.
A release from CMHA said IMPACT provides wrap around care and linkages to on campus and off campus services further support this on campus initiative for individuals experiencing a crisis. For one client, Wagner said they might see them two or three times to provide some follow up support for them.
"We could certainly expand our hours," Wagner said about what the program could improve on. Currently, IMPACT U of G only runs Thursday to Sundays from 2 p.m. until 12 a.m.
IMPACT U of G is a collaborative program between Guelph Police Service (GPS), Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS), Wellington Provincial Police (OPP), U of G campus police and special constables. Wagner adds this program also benefits police services, as CMHA provides consultation with police about calls, providing training sessions, resources and support for officers after traumatic calls.
"This really increases their capacity as well, and really, we're another tool in their tool kit to provide, again, the right resources that will produce the most least intrusive response for individuals," said Wagner.
Next week, the results of IMPACT U of G will be presented at the Canadian Conference for Mental Health on campus. Wagner said the CMHA hopes to share this resource with other campuses in Canada.
"I think we're one of the first CMHA's to partner with our local university to provide this and because of this success at the University of Guelph, we have expanded that to the University of Waterloo in May 2022 and we're hoping the trend continues," she said.
"Mental healthcare in the province, and Canada-wide, has typically been underfunded, so we're hoping to highlight the success fo this program and the partnership between wellness services, campus police and local CMHAs."
