Wellness check system needs overhaul, no police: advocacy group

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — The issue isn’t just with police, it’s the entire mental health system that needs an overhaul, argues a Vancouver advocacy group as a student files a lawsuit again the RCMP in Kelowna.

Meenakshi Mannoe with Pivot Legal Society says the current mental health system is underfunded and riddled with failures.

“For example, the fact that people may only be able to access a level of psychiatric when they are in a state of absolute crisis,” she says.

RELATED: ‘Reckless’ Kelowna RCMP officer seen dragging, stepping on head of nursing student during wellness check

During a wellness check in January, nursing student Mona Wang says Cpl. Lacey Browning allegedly kicked her in the stomach while she lay on the ground, and also stepped on her arm.

Wang’s lawsuit also claims Browning “repeatedly assaulted” before shouting “Stop being so dramatic.”

However, the defendants claim Wang was “combative”, refusing arrest, and swinging her arms at Browning, which lead to the corporal striking the student “several times with an open palm,” then physically restraining her.

The RCMP have denied most claims.

Mannoe argues officers shouldn’t be the ones doing wellness checks in the first place.

“Because, unfortunately, we know police like everyone in society carries certain stigmas and prejudices about people with mental health issues, and that, in turn, colours how they respond to such calls.”

Instead, Mannoe suggests the focus shift to helping people before they reach crisis levels through a number of interventions.

“Things like peer-based advocacy, access to safe supply, housing, basic income, all of those basic things that can be preventative. And then if people reach a point of crisis, let’s look at some civilian-based intervention models rather than police.”

Noting many people don’t know who else to call other than the police, Mannoe says there needs to be an overhaul of the mental health system.

“It’s not a survivor-centric system, it’s not a system that’s generally trauma-informed. For people who have, perhaps, experienced previous detention under the mental health act, calling the police is really going to compound their fear of the systems when they’re already in a scared and vulnerable place.”

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