Police and mental health

In fact, policy and legislative changes over the past 30 years, such as changes to the Mental Health Act, mental health reform, de-institutionalization, and the shift toward providing community-based mental health services, have greatly expanded the role and authority of police in their interactions with individuals with mental disorders and the mental health system. [...] Many informants stressed the need to revisit the recommendations made in the 2005 CTO review, Report on the Legislated Review of Community Treatment Orders, Required Under Section 33.9 of the Mental Health Act: for the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and implement the recommendations across the province. [...] An NCR verdict means that at the time of the act, the accused was “suffering from a mental disorder that rendered the person incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act or of knowing that it was wrong.”15 (F) Disposition: Detention or Discharge of a Forensic Client The ORB makes a decision (called a disposition) about whether to detain or discharge the individual, by determining wh [...] Once the examination has taken place, Section 20 of the Mental Health Act permits the physician to release the individual in custody or admit the individual to the hospital as an involuntary or voluntary patient: The attending physician, after observing and examining a person who is the subject of an application for assessment under Section 15 or who is the subject of an order under Section 32, (a [...] In jurisdictions where there is a Mental Health Court Support Services program, the Crown Attorney for the jurisdiction shall develop a protocol respecting the referral of offenders to the program, and the sharing of information between the Crown and mental health workers.