Brandon Police now have the power to help those dealing with mental health crises thanks to a handheld app.
The Health IM app allows police to perform an on-scene risk assessment and communicate with hospital triage nurses on their smartphones.
It will allow officers to match the right mental health resources to the situation, rather than automatically going to the hospital.
It can take hours for doctors to see mental health patients.
The app has allowed officers to cut time spent in hospitals in half.
Brendan Sheehan, a spokesperson for Health IM, says this is the first time the software has been licenced to a police department on handheld devices. It will allow officers to take the assessment tools to those in distress, rather than forcing officers to go back to their laptops in their cars.
Brandon Police spokesperson Sergeant Kirby Sararas says the force is trained up and ready to go.
The program was funded through the Province’s Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund.
