The Weyburn Police Service handled 12 individual calls for assistance last week relating to mental health concerns.
While in many instances, police can use their training to deescalate and work to find safe solutions with people suffering from mental health concerns, in two of last week's cases, the people were required to be apprehended under the Mental Health Act and were taken to the Weyburn General Hospital for appropriate treatment.
"We deal with mental health calls a lot now, way, way, way more than ever in the past, usually linked to drug addiction, which in the end causes some severe mental health concerns," shared Sergeant Shane St. John. "If they've got a severe addiction, if we feel they're a threat to themselves or to the public, we can apprehend them under the Mental Health Act."
"Unfortunately, these circumstances ended up being fairly intense, with both subjects. Then we transported them to the hospital where they're seen by a doctor and then hopefully seen by a psychologist and and they get some help that they need to get calmed down to maybe get on that road to recovery. But it's they are very intense situations and they can be very violent."
St. John said the decision to invoke the Mental Health Act is not one taken lightly by police.
"We do have training and we do everything in our power to de-escalate the situation. We understand the situation, but they're completely detached from reality a lot of times, and they can be very intense situations."