Province promising more mental health funding; ‘ideological block’ could prevent Car 40 expansion in Kamloops

Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar, also the former mayor of Kamloops, has been a long-standing advocate for expanded Car 40 but hasn’t seen much progress.

“Cities come asking for repeatedly and MLAs come asking repeatedly for expansion of Car 40. It gets thrown back from the government, as if it’s an [Interior Health] problem. Now we’ve seen the Premier say the province is going to expand these services, and then we get ambiguity from the Minster and no comment from Interior Health,” said Milobar.

The one challenge Malcolmson has heard from Interior Health is nursing complement with IH concerned about taking a nurse out of Royal Inland Hospital, for example, to fill the second Car 40 spot with a scarcity of nurses.

“But I will say that I’m optimistic based on the conversations we’re having with every health authority that if we’re a little bit more broad in the definition of who is that mental-health professional, it may not be exactly what Kamloops asked for, but I’m feeling really optimistic that we’re going to be able to respond to the community need.”

Milobar responded, “It’s very clear there is an ideological block in terms of where the value is they see pairing a mental-health nurse with RCMP officers. That needs to be overcome, plain and simple. Whether a nurse is providing care to the community out on the streets or care at a hospital, it’s still care that is needed by this community.”

Speaking to the differing philosophy, Malcolmson says a newer iniative that’s launched in North Vancouver is Peer Assisted Care Teams.

“It’s completely without police. They’ve been called 448 times. Most of the time they’ve been able to talk with someone just on the phone and only actually had to go out on calls 78 times. Only six times did they need to call police to bring in back-up,” she said.

Malcolmson says Sunday’s announcement of the Safer Communities Action Plan will make funding available for another nine cities to have such teams.

However, still no firm committment for a second nurse for Car 40 in Kamloops.

by Chad Klassen

Province promising more mental health funding; ‘ideological block’ could prevent Car 40 expansion in Kamloops

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