Cochrane is about to receive an invaluable resource from which the community and surrounding area will benefit. Our town has been chosen to be a base for a Regional Police and Crisis Team or (RPACT). 

RPACT is a collaboration between the Alberta RCMP and Alberta Health Services and is a community-based mobile response to mental health crises calls.  RCMP Officers and mental health therapists work together as a team to respond to mental health calls. There are currently teams based out of Edmonton, Grande Prairie, and Red Deer. Rocky Mountain House saw a team added on February 22 and Cochrane's team will start on March 7. Additional teams will be posted in Peace River, Wetaskiwin, and St. Paul with dates to be determined.  

Cochrane RCMP Cpl. Susan Richter says in Cochrane, police have seen a marked increase in mental health calls “It always is an issue, but it is something that we have been seeing more of in the last year or two since COVID, it’s having an impact on everyone. So, we have seen an increase in mental health and medical-related calls that we assist with.” Since the police are frequently the primary frontline response to a mental health crisis, it has become increasingly important to establish and support an effective model in which police respond to such calls. According to an RCMP release, “In 2020 there were over 20,000 files associated to the Mental Health Act. By September 2021, the Alberta RCMP already had 16,908 such files.”

Teaming officers with mental health therapists brings together a strong alliance in which to assess and provide support for individuals in a mental health crisis. From a policing perspective, Cpl. Richter says, “As police officers, we get kind of minimal training in mental health crises. And there is only a certain amount we can do like if somebody is an imminent risk to themselves or to others, we can bring them to the hospital so they can get some psychiatric care but that’s about the extent of what we can do for them.  So, the RPACT team will have different resources that they can draw into this, and they would be able to respond differently than when it’s just police who are responding. So, it’s such a valuable resource and it has been extremely successful in other detachments and I’m really, really happy that they are going to be coming here to Cochrane.”

Cochrane's team starts on March 7th and will consist of an RCMP constable and a registered psychiatric nurse. They will be accessible through the Cochrane RCMP detachment Monday through Friday. This is not a temporary assignment, the team will have a permanent spot in the RCMP’s new detachment when it opens.

RPACT will cover several detachments including Airdrie rural, Rocky View County, and surrounding areas, but will be based out of Cochrane.

The pairing of an officer and a therapist will provide invaluable support during mental health calls not only to the individual but to their family as well. Richter says, “It’s going to be so beneficial for everybody, to get that person in crisis additional resources and get it for the families. A team approach between the criminal justice system and the medical system as well to get solutions to really help the person so they don’t get to the point of crisis.”