The provincial government should boost mental health services because a growing number of people with those problems are getting into trouble with the law, Ontario’s police chiefs say.
“There’s simply not enough support for people with mental health problems,” said Joe Couto, director of government relations with the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.
The result is that people who need the help of health care workers are instead “coming into contact more and more with the justice system,” Couto added in a phone interview Sunday.
“We are spending a lot of time and resources dealing with mental health issues,” he said, referring to police officers across the province. “This goes way back to the Mike Harris (Conservative) government, which started making cuts in social support. And guess who got to take a lot of those responsibilities?”
Chief Blair, no doubt the cuts to the mental health system is a huge problem… but uhh… maybe the first step to improving the lives of many who deal with mental health issues is for you guys to stop beating folks up and locking them up? How about a recognition of all those you have murdered?
