By Chad Klassen

Car 40 a success in tackling mental health crises

May 6, 2016 | 5:32 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s mental health week across the country, bringing awareness to conditions that plague one in five Canadians.

In Kamloops a partnership between Interior Health and the RCMP is helping people dealing with mental-health challenges, and it’s easing pressure on the system.

It’s called the Car 40 program, and since October 2012 a mental-health nurse and a police officer have been working together to help those in crisis around the city.

Often times, that Police Officer is Constable Marie Gagnon.

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“It’s a really good partnership, because it’s complementary, and we can really offer services and find that we can actually do something for somebody, not just put a little band-aid,” said Gagnon

Gagnon says having a Mental Health Nurse on board means more people are being kept out of the Royal Inland Hospital emergency room when they don’t actually need emergency attention.