The majority of the money will go to hire nurses to join the Vancouver Police Department's Car 87/88 program
Vancouver mayor Ken Sim announced on Sunday that the city would give Vancouver Coastal Health a $2.8 million grant to bolster mental health outreach teams.
The bulk of the money would go toward hiring additional nurses to work on the Vancouver Police Department’s Car 87/88 program, in which a police/nurse team travels to non-emergency calls involving people with deteriorating mental health.
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Sim said the funding came from a $16 million promise during last fall’s election campaign to hire more police and nurses to support people who are suffering from mental illness combined with lack of stable housing and substance abuse issues.
The majority of the money will go to the Car 87/88 program, while the rest will go to VPD’s Assertive Outreach Team.
B.C. premier David Eby said the provincial government was paying to increase similar mental outreach services that are offered by Car 87/88.
He said in this case, the City of Vancouver was “stepping up” by helping fund a provincial service — acknowledging it was unusual for a municipality to fund direct health services.
Sim said it was up to municipalities to be “be bold” in dealing with the region’s mental health crisis.
Vancouver Coastal Health boss Patricia Daly said it would take between two and three months to recruit the city-funded outreach nurses and they would be on the job with police by the end of the year.
More to come …
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