The Nipissing West Detachment of the OPP in West Nipissing have created a new Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT), and launched the service on February 9th. The team consists of the dynamic duo of officer Serge Sicard and a health officer, Tiffany MacKinnon, who is a registered mental health nurse.
Together, they will respond to help people “experiencing crisis” within the community as a result of mental health or addictions. This team approach provides people in crisis, as well as their families and caregivers, “with timely and appropriate crisis intervention in cases that require a police response, by proactively involving a mental health professional” to attend the scene and provide support.
This new service was brought to life through a collaboration between the OPP and the Alliance Centre at the West Nipissing General Hospital. The province of Ontario provided funding through the Community Safety and Policing Grant program.
"The OPP continues to seek opportunities to evolve and enhance our service delivery model by collaborating with our community stakeholders to improve outcomes for our citizens who are struggling,” OPP Inspector McMullen said. “We are very fortunate,” he added, “to have developed such a strong partnership with Alliance Centre to provide a new service to the community.”
“Hopefully,” he said, this new service will “improve outcomes and enhance access to care.”
Lynn Perreault, the program manager of Alliance Centre mentioned the new team will “proactively work with individuals who suffer from mental health or substance abuse issues to ensure that they are accessing proper services.”
This new service is the newest addition to the “many service providers in the Nipissing West Detachment catchment,” the OPP noted, all of which “are ready and able to assist you. For those needing non-urgent support that does not require police intervention, they encourage you to visit the West Nipissing General Hospital’s website’s programs and services page, which outlines a list of services available.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
