The New Westminster Police Department is bolstering its mental health unit amid rising demand for mental health referrals by patrol officers.
The department recently added a second officer to its mental health unit, which, since its inception, had been a solo venture, championed by Det. Arthur Wlodyka in 2013.
In the beginning, Wlodyka would field requests for assistance from patrol officers who spent much of their time dealing with the same clients over and over again. Now, however, much of his work is handling referrals.
Each month, Wlodyka receives about 80 to 150 referrals from patrol officers, according to the department’s 2015 annual report. These referrals concern people with mental illnesses who need help accessing community resources and further assistance from partners, including New Westminster Mental Health.
Because of the increasing demand for such referrals, the department added Det. Stu Hagen to the unit. Hagen, like Wlodyka, works mostly Monday to Friday. His main responsibility is to connect clients struggling with mental health problems to the appropriate resources, acting Sgt. Jeff Scott told the Record.
“They also liaise between us (patrol officers) and different local hospitals and Fraser Health. Their job is really to make sure that the people that the police interact with are getting the health care access that is necessary for them. So it’s not just a policing response thing, but it’s bringing all these different groups and organizations together to help positively interact with different clients in the city,” Scott said.
