b'F E A T U R EAccommodating Mental Health ChallengesinPolicingBy Seann McAleese, Partner, Miller Thomson LLPT heperfectstorminpolicingiscoalescing64 per cent of Ontario workers would be concernedaround those charged with the duty to serveabout how work would be affected if a colleague andprotect.Aspoliceservicesarecalledhad a mental illness; ontodomorewithlessandbudgetsare39 per cent of Ontario workers indicate they would squeezed, the mental health of the rank and file is of increasing concern. According to the Statisticsnot tell their manager if experiencing a mental Canada report, Police Resources in Canada, 2018, policehealth problem; andexpenditureshavebeenincreasingwhilestrengthis40 per cent agreed they have experienced feelingsdeclining(compensationamountingto82percentofof anxiety or depression but never sought medical operating expenditures). The report also notes the largesthelp for it.percentage of officers on long-term leave are on medicalUnderstanding and Addressing Mental Healthleave, and five per cent of all personnel are currently on a longer-term leave. The statistics for mental health in policing are, not surpris-Mental health concerns are gaining prominence, andingly, of even greater concern as they magnify the risk increasingly,acceptanceinCanadabutnotwithoutfactors identified above when compared to the general continuedfeelingsofstigma.TheMentalIllnessandpopulation. According to CAMHs Discussion Paper: Police Addiction: Facts and Statistics report by the Centre forMental Health, Oct. 2018: Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is illustrative of thispolice officers are disproportionately affected by dynamic. For example: mental illness;annually, one in five Canadians experiences aa substantial number of municipal/provincial policemental illness or addiction problem; officers (36.7 per cent) and RCMP (50.2 per cent) by 40 years of age, one in two Canadians havereport current symptoms of mental illness; or have hada mental illness; 29 per cent of police officers were in the clinicalpeople with a mental illness are twice as likely todiagnostic range for PTSD;have a substance abuse problem compared to thepolice officers are more likely to engage in suicidal general population; behaviours; andmental illness is the leading cause of disability the prevalence of past year suicidal ideation andin Canada; planning is higher for police officers;about 4,000 Canadians per year die by suicide In2019,theChiefCoronerofOntarioconvenedanalmost 11 suicides a day on average; expertpaneltoexaminethemountingconcernswith more than 75 per cent of suicides involve men; suicides in policing. This resulted in the release of Report of the Expert Panel on Police Officer Deaths by Suicide, more than 50 per cent of suicides involve peopleSeptember 2019. Among the key findings of the reportaged 45 or older; was that up to 40 per cent of police calls involve personsThe Official Publication of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police13'