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By Dylana Kneeshaw

CAR40 PROGRAM

Kamloops Integrated Crisis Response Team notes improvements one year into expanded service

Dec 4, 2023 | 6:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Kamloops Integrated Crisis Response Team (ICRT) — once known as Car 40 — says it has noticed an improvement since expanding its teams and operation hours last year.

The program pairs RCMP officers with nurses/clinicians to respond to mental health-related calls. When teams are called out, they can de-escalate situations, conduct mental health assessments or crisis interventions, and make referrals to alternative support agencies.

The Integrated Crisis Response Team used to only have one pairing for the Kamloops area and Team Lead Julie Wade says there are now three nurses and two officers.

“We have more of a presence, a regular presence out in the community,” explains Wade, “so we’re able to do more outreach and keep really, really good relations with community partners and also just folks who are out and about in the street as well.”

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Interior Health says the hours have also expanded to 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. It’s a staffing improvement from before, but the need for the service hasn’t diminished, so Wade says there is room to keep enhancing local crisis response.

“It’s not always just about going to hospital with the nurse and the officer,” Wade says. “If anything, actually, I think having the nurse and the officer partnered together make for such a great team to get out there, connect and ensure that folks are being assessed properly, both from a safety perspective for community from the RCMP side, and then also that mental health and substance use piece.”

Click here for more information about the Integrated Crisis Response Team.