After receiving approval to develop a local branch of the Regional Police and Crisis Teams (RPACT) in 2023, Drumheller RCMP has fully staffed the local team as of October 29 of this year.
Constable Victor Iliescu was selected as the regular RCMP member to fulfill the role, and will work closely with registered psychiatric nurse Julia Davis, who has more than two decades of experience, to provide support on mental health and other calls received by RCMP; this team will service the Drumheller and surrounding areas, including Stettler, Beiseker, Three Hills, and Hanna.
“Cochrane has an RPACT team that used to cover up to this area, and there was obviously such vast distances extending all the way out to Oyen, the team is going to stretched pretty thin,” Cst. Iliescu tells the Mail.
“With having the team in Drumheller, we’re going to be able to take some of that load off of them and assist with mental health calls as they arise.”
At this time there are a total of 20 RPACT teams across the province, with 15 of those teams placed within RCMP detachments and five in city municipalities. In 2023, Drumheller RCMP responded to a total of 117 mental health crisis calls, and so far there seems to be a similar trend in 2024 with the detachment responding to 87 calls to date in 2024.
Cst. Iliescu shares the RPACT team will respond to various calls, which may include providing on-site mental health assessments and referrals to other community agencies.
Ms. Davis adds with her connections with Alberta Health Services (AHS) and Recovery Alberta, this gives the RPACT team additional access to patient records in conjunction with policing information to better determine the individual’s needs.
“If it’s just health care responding, we don’t have that piece if there’s any safety concerns, so to have that partnership is really important,” Ms. Davis shares.
She notes this is beneficial when addressing calls where a person may have an extensive mental health record, but may have never had a criminal record, and can assist in providing the right referrals and resources or determining if a Form-10 mental health apprehension application is necessary.
