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By Dylana Kneeshaw

MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES

Kamloops mayor hopes to keep Car 40 expansion on the table

Mar 2, 2022 | 4:01 PM

KAMLOOPS — As municipalities begin digging into how they can utilize funds designated for mental health and healthcare services in the BC Budget, the mayor of Kamloops says the city still needs another Car 40 unit.

“Last year in 2021, we had over 800 calls for that particular unit, and those calls meet the needs of people who are in distress.” Mayor Ken Christian told CFJC Today.

Car 40 was launched nearly a decade ago in 2013, and since then Christian says both the city’s population, and the need for mental health response has grown. The program pairs an RCMP officer with a mental health practitioner to respond to calls that may be more mental health-related than criminal.

“We have one nurse and one dedicated police car right now,” notes Christian. “We want to see that doubled and we believe that’s a safe and effective intervention to meet the mental health needs of many on our streets.”

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Christian feels the program is beneficial as it can mitigate the kind of escalation that can occur when an individual in crises sees police arrive on scene.

“Very often there’s an apprehension or an arrest and that winds up at the hospital, it uses up police services, but it uses up ER time and it keeps people waiting there for service. When we do deploy Car 40, we find that it’s a much more seamless interaction.”

Both the City and Kamloops RCMP’s detachment superintendent have echoed calls for growing the program and Interior Health would need to determine that a second unit is needed.

“It’s their (Interior Health’s) position that the outcomes aren’t satisfactory enough to meet the expenses,” says Christian. “But I say that we have proven that this process works in Kamloops.”

The mayor says Car 40 is often part of the city’s discussions with Interior Health and will continue to advocate for an expansion of the program.

Interior Health was contacted for an interview for this story (Mar. 2), but CFJC did not receive a response by publication time.