If this is anywhere near the truth then I am glad I do not live in Canada. Such a dangerous person should have detained indefinately years ago (I refer to the psycho in episode 1)
shareIt's a TV show. Otherwise the show is somewhat accurate in the sense that yes, Toronto and other cities alike do have psychologist/police officer units that attend calls where a person may have mental health issues.
shareHey, it beats our American system. We just stick a few in personal care homes, nursing homes, and prisons. The rest end up homeless. With consistent medical intervention, most mentally ill people are harmless.
share@mlbstellar, Exactly! When I saw the title of this thread I thought it was going to be an American wondering if Canada's mental health system is really this good! I watch the show and think that just the idea of Mental Health Unit on a police force is a revolutionary (good) idea. Canada had National Health Care and I believe that includes mental health. The U.S. system is in tatters post deinstitutionalization (the flawed idea that if we got rid of all the mental hospitals that communities would step up to care for the mentally ill) and the replacement of real therapy with pills. Add to that the fact that just about anyone can get handguns (that end up killing their owners or family members far more than they "protect" anyone) and assault rifles and ammunition and you have a recipe for so many senseless disasters. Add a national fear agenda that makes it normal to be paranoid....
Just look at last week's news. A woman suffering from postpartum psychosis tries to ram her car, with her baby in the back seat, through the gate at the White House, hits an officer, and is gunned down dead while still driving. This show could do a "ripped from the headlines" story about how that could have all gone down in a far less violent way (if she had received proper support and treatment before, if the Secret Service had a way of quickly identifying that was mentally ill and not a terrorist, etc., etc.).
Get rid of the guns. Provide real mental health care. Educate the populace and law enforcement. (Just for writing this I'm sure I'll get bashed by someone, cause in the U.S.A. that is "crazy talk"!)