Understanding the Increase in Mental Health Calls to Peterborough Police Since 2010

In 2010 there was a spike in the calls that the Peterborough Police Service (PPS) received and classified as mental health related. There has not been a significant decline in mental health calls since this rise in 2010. To understand why there was an increase in calls, this project investigated how the PPS currently classify the calls they receive and changes that may have occurred in the system for classification around 2010. Fact-finding meetings were set up by the host agency (PPS) to answer these internal questions. Online literature reviews were done and fact finding meetings with mental health service providers were requested via email. This was to determine whether mental health issues increased in 2010, whether other services knew of changes in the Peterborough community around 2010, whether similar increases in demand were experienced by the Peterborough mental health services, and whether there was a change, reduction or disappearance of services provided prior to 2010.