The Vancouver Police Department will soon have new team members to help officers in the field get someone experience a mental health crisis the care they need. | Unsplash
The Vancouver Police Department will soon have new team members to help officers in the field get someone experience a mental health crisis the care they need. | Unsplash
The Vancouver Police Department will soon have new team members to help officers in the field get someone experience a mental health crisis the care they need.
It's all part of a new program aimed at creating better access to mental heath treatment in conjunction with Sea Mar - Community Services Northwest. The program made possible thanks to a $315,000 grant from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC).
"We are fortunate for this opportunity to partner with WASPC and Sea Mar to bring this pilot program and new resources to Vancouver and ensure mental health professional are used early on so that our officers can focus on more appropriate policing matters," VPD Police Chief James McElvain said in a release posted on the city's website.
Vancouver was one of nine communities to receive the grant back in 2019. The program was set to launch back in March, but was postponed because of the pandemic. The city will share the grant money with Sea Mar to create three full-time mental health responder positions. Those professionals will be on-call to help officers by providing evaluations and suggest treatment for subjects experiencing a mental health crisis.
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