According to the Regina Police Service (RPS), the city’s complex needs shelter is creating a space for growth in policing.
At a press confrence on Monday, Chief Farooq Hasan Sheikh said the ability to take non-violent detainees to the shetler is a welcome change as it allows RPS officers to return to service sooner.
“I’m really happy with it,” Sheik said. “One-hundred-and-eight people we detained, they would’ve normally been in a cell for eight hours, or maybe longer ,and they wouldn’t have got the support from trained people to deal with them accordingly. One-hundred-and-one have been handed over to the complex needs shelter, where they’ve got highly trained people.”
The provincial government opened the 15-bed space earlier this year to offer support to those in police detention to who are a risk to themselves or others.
Natasha Kennedy, executive director of Regina Treaty/Status Indian Services Inc., said her service often deals with people struggling with addiction and that shelter spaces with properly trained staff are a game changer.
“At the shelter capacity, we’re providing the necessary in terms of allowing them to have a safe place to stay food, access to shelter, all of those necessities. But we’re also seeing the ability for us to reach further into the community with their support,” she said.
Keely Wight-Young, executive director of Caring Hearts, a Regina-based non-profit to support mental health, said places like the complex needs shelter help take care of the mental health of those in need.
“Having the ability to provide appropriate support rather than punishing people for whatever it is that they’re experiencing or the distress that they’re in, wrapping around service for them, so that we can meet the needs that they’re experiencing at that time, is incredibly important,” Wight-Young said.