This post is a bit of a mish-mash of different things…
Dr. Nordli and I have been friends ever since I came back from New Zealand. She’s a wonderful doctor who takes a real interest in getting her patients better. She’s outspoken as sin, but a heck of a doctor.
She’s worked for six years in the Ponoka institution which is a world class hospital for brain damage and has a long history in treating people with mental illness. Dr. Nordli will be missed there by staff and patients.
If you happen to be severely mentally ill, and you are very lucky, you end up in Ponoka. According to what Dr. Nordli says, you’ll only be in there, usually, for three to four weeks. I don’t know yet what the follow-up is to your stay. That is something I have to look up.
Now, last Thursday, (and this is Monday), the Calgary police beefed up their personnel on the lower east side due to a “spike” in recent crime.
“There has been an increase in arrests,” said S/Sgt Barry Balerud. He said there have been 33 arrests so far and 15 of them are criminal code offences, mostly involving drugs.
He explained there is a lot of criminal activity in the area, mostly drug trafficking.
S/Sgt Balerud also explained that the purpose of the police crackdown was not to deal with the homeless or mentally ill; they were looking for criminal activity in particular. He said they do have a Mobile Response Team in the downtown core run by the Calgary Health Centre that they call on in cases of coming across people with mental illness issues.
However, he said, he did not know of anyone calling on the unit or of dealing with anyone with mental illness issues during the crackdown. He said he’s been out there himself and even in talking with fellow officers, there has been no one taken to the psych ward since Thursday as far as he is aware.
I’m also waiting for a download of info from Emergency Medical Services who deal with picking up mentally ill people on the street and getting them to a hospital if called upon by police.
Paul Lapointe of EMS explained that they have a special unit in the downtown core for such a purpose but he is unaware of any increase in activity during the crackdown. He said they usually respond to requests from police but sometimes their drivers can call in if they see someone they suspect is in real trouble.
I’ll fill in more details when I get them. In the meantime, have a good one.
