London police move to hire full-time psychologist

In a move to help officers who face increasing mental health challenges on the job, London's Police Services Board has approved in principle a plan to add more supports, including a full-timepsychologist.

The plan was approved at Thursday's meetingin response to a proposal put forward by board member Dr. Javeed Sukhera.

In a motion making his case to the board,Sukherasaid officers are "exposed to increasing mental health demands and complex, clinicallychallenging mental health crises."

At the meeting, he spoke of a "crisis unfolding" as officers face a fragmented system of supports that "are not serving anyone well."

His motion was approved pending a more detailed business-case.

'This is a step in the right direction'

Police Chief John Pare said officers can currently get help through the Safe Guard program but it's only available to officers in "high risk" units. The proposal approved Thursday aims to expand that support to all officers and provide regular check upsinstead of waiting until they find themselves in crisis.

"This is a step in the right direction," said Pare. "This will help us address all our needs for all our members across the organization."

Pare said a full-time psychologist on staff will allow officers to build trust over time, a change he says will result in better care.

"There's still a lot of misunderstanding around mental health.I think this is a step in the right direction to eliminate that."

Pare said this summer's news about the loss of OPP officers to suicidehighlighted the need for more resources.

• OPP overhauling mental supports in wake of suicides

"It kind of hits home that you need to do more for your members and we know that our members are looking for that help," he said.

Board chair Mo Salihsaid he expects a more detailed proposal about the plan will be ready for the Oct. 18 meeting of the Police Services Board.

"I think it was critical to support our frontline officers because we recognize the trauma that they're exposed to everyday and we want to make sure that they're healthy so that they can take care our community."

Below is a copy of Dr.JaveedSukhera'smotion to the Police Service Board.