The MPP for Windsor West is hoping to raise awareness about mental health at Queen's Park, following a ride along with a community outreach team.
On Monday, MPP Lisa Gretzky joined members of the Windsor police Community Outreach and Support Team (COAST) for the ride along, in an effort to learn more about the mental health needs of the community.
Gretzky says the team works to link individuals with mental health issues with the necessary community resources and support systems, in order to prevent further crisis. She says it also helps to reduce the number of mental health calls for frontline police officers.
"Until you actually go out with the frontline workers, the people who are doing this work everyday, you don't really have a grasp of what's going on," she says. "Mental health issues are at a crisis level across the province -- more and more people are being identified with mental health issues. But accessing support is becoming harder and harder largely because of funding."
COAST is a partnership between the Windsor Police Services and the Community Crisis Centre of Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare. The team consists of a plain clothes police officer and a crisis worker.
Gretzky says she hopes to continue the discussion pertaining to mental health at Queen's Park.
"To get them into the system, starting the process, is great, but I'm going to continue the conversation with the government saying that we need more funding in order to be able to expand the resources that we have and to be able to service more people," she says.
According to the Windsor Police Service, its officers responded to over 1,400 mental health related calls in 2013.
"The fact of the matter is, the majority of our community organizations have wait lists [that are] months or years long. So to have the COAST team go out and identify people is fantastic," says Gretzky. "It's a great opportunity for the government to recognize that there is mental health crisis in this province, and that they need to be doing more to address that."