York Regional Police Supt. Sarah Riddell said it was a Grade 11 sociology course that piqued her interest in a career in policing.
“I just remember talking about the role of policing in society at that point in time, and really being intrigued by the idea of making my job, my career, to help my community, to solve problems, to defend people's rights,” she said.
Since then, Riddell has worked in several York Region communities, including in Newmarket and Georgina, before moving to the YRP’s headquarters in Aurora to lead the department’s community services command in 2021.
That new role came at a time when the department was seeing thousands of calls for service related to mental health in 2023, averaging anywhere from 20 to 30 today.
“I don't think people necessarily recognize the pervasiveness of how many people in the community are struggling in this space,” said Riddell.
YRP’s mental health unit has gone through various iterations since it was founded in 2004, but has grown on multiple fronts since Riddell took charge. YRP is partnered with Aurora-based mental health hub Your Support Services Network, who work with police and provide crisis support workers.
“The goal is that an individual in crisis be treated with compassion, and I think we all recognize that a police response isn't always the right response to these sorts of situations,” she said. “Our goal as the person who receives the phone call for help, is to make sure that people get the most appropriate service for them, at that point in their life.”
YRP has gone from having two mental health support team cars on the road a day to four, with daily coverage from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. There’s also now a mental health call diversion unit, which sees a crisis worker embedded in the YRP’s call centre who handles some mental health calls and is able to “de-escalate and divert some of the non-emergency crisis calls that come into our communication centre.”
“The crisis workers from YSSN are so skilled in de-escalation and provide a sense of calm,” said Riddell. “A lot of the calls that we go to, our officers are also in plain clothes and they drive an unmarked car, so the goal there is to try and reduce some of the stigmatization that's associated to people who have poor mental health or mental health concerns.”
Riddell said partnering with YSSN has also helped “reduce the reliance on a front-line response.” The department has also started its mental health engagement team, which does outreach and works with vulnerable people in the region to connect them with services.
Riddell said the YRP has identified mental health as a “top concern,” in York Region, which is in the case in several jurisdictions elsewhere in the province.
“I know that there's still growth that can happen in this space with respect to conversations about the CMHA hub and other such ideas,” she added.
“We have a really fulsome response to those in our community who are the most vulnerable, and I'm very proud to work with these amazing people day and day out.”
