A multicenter study of short-term changes in mental health emergency services use during lockdown in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures have led to increasing mental health concerns in the general population. We aimed to assess the short-term impact of the pandemic lockdown on mental health emergency services use in the Kitchener-Waterloo region of Ontario, Canada. Methods We conducted an observational study during the 6-month period between March 5 and September 5, 2020 using National Ambulatory Care Reporting System metadata from mental health visits to three regional Emergency Departments (ED); mental health and substance related police calls; and calls to a regional mental health crisis telephone line, comparing volumes during the pandemic lockdown with the same period in 2019. Quasi-Poisson regressions were used to determine significant differences between numbers of each visit or call type during the lockdown period versus the previous year. Significant changes in ED visits, mental health diagnoses, police responses, and calls to the crisis line from March 5 to September 5, 2020 were examined using changepoint analyses. Results Involuntary admissions, substance related visits, mood related visits, situational crisis visits, and self-harm related mental health visits to the EDs were significantly reduced during the lockdown period compared to the year before. Psychosis-related and alcohol-related visits were not significantly reduced. Among police calls, suicide attempts were significantly decreased during the period of lockdown, but intoxication, assault, and domestic disputes were not significantly different. Mental health crisis telephone calls were significantly decreased during the lockdown period. There was a significant increase in weekly mental health diagnoses starting in the week of July 12 – July 18. There was a significant increase in crisis calls starting in the week of May 31 – June 6, the same week that many guidelines, such as gathering restrictions, were eased. There was a significant increase in weekly police responses starting in the week of June 14 – June 20. Conclusions Contrary to our hypothesis, the decrease in most types of mental health ED visits, mental health and substance-related police calls, and mental health crisis calls largely mirrored the overall decline in emergency services usage during the lockdown period. This finding is unexpected in the context of increased attention to acutely deteriorating mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A multicenter study of short-term changes in mental health emergency services use during lockdown in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures have led to increasing mental health concerns in the general population. We aimed to assess the short-term impact of the pandemic lockdown on mental health emergency services use in the Kitchener-Waterloo region of Ontario, Canada. Methods We conducted an observational study during the 6-month period between March 5 and September 5, 2020 using National Ambulatory Care Reporting System metadata from mental health visits to three regional Emergency Departments (ED); mental health and substance related police calls; and calls to a regional mental health crisis telephone line, comparing volumes during the pandemic lockdown with the same period in 2019. Quasi-Poisson regressions were used to determine significant differences between numbers of each visit or call type during the lockdown period versus the previous year. Significant changes in ED visits, mental health diagnoses, police responses, and calls to the crisis line from March 5 to September 5, 2020 were examined using changepoint analyses. Results Involuntary admissions, substance related visits, mood related visits, situational crisis visits, and self-harm related mental health visits to the EDs were significantly reduced during the lockdown period compared to the year before. Psychosis-related and alcohol-related visits were not significantly reduced. Among police calls, suicide attempts were significantly decreased during the period of lockdown, but intoxication, assault, and domestic disputes were not significantly different. Mental health crisis telephone calls were significantly decreased during the lockdown period. There was a significant increase in weekly mental health diagnoses starting in the week of July 12 – July 18. There was a significant increase in crisis calls starting in the week of May 31 – June 6, the same week that many guidelines, such as gathering restrictions, were eased. There was a significant increase in weekly police responses starting in the week of June 14 – June 20. Conclusions Contrary to our hypothesis, the decrease in most types of mental health ED visits, mental health and substance-related police calls, and mental health crisis calls largely mirrored the overall decline in emergency services usage during the lockdown period. This finding is unexpected in the context of increased attention to acutely deteriorating mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responding to cybercrime: results of a comparison between community members and police personnel

Advancements in information technology are sources of both opportunity and vulnerability for citizens. Previous research indicates that there are significant challenges for police in investigating cybercrime, that community expectations about police responses are based largely on media representations, and that victims experience high levels of frustration and stigmatisation. This paper examines the views of the Australian community and law enforcement officers about the policing of cybercrime. Results suggest that police personnel are more likely to view cybercrime as serious, and community members are more likely to ascribe blame to victims. Results also indicate a discrepancy between police and community members in their views of the efficacy of police responses. These discrepancies contribute to public dissatisfaction. Therefore, the paper covers some general strategies for short-and long-term cybercrime prevention.

Dousing threats and the criminal law in Queensland: Do we need a new offence?

This article examines dousing threats as criminal conduct and a form of domestic and family violence. It points to recent cases of dousing and highlights concerns that the low penalties of applicable offences in Queensland may not reflect the gravity of the harm caused nor the culpability of offenders. The article analyses the current legal framework and argues that a new dousing offence in Queensland would fill a gap in the criminal law, more accurately label such offending and may also contribute to improved police responses to dousing threats.

The policing of cuckooing in ‘County Lines’ drug dealing: an ethnographic study of an amplification spiral

Responding to cases of ‘cuckooing’, where drug dealers take over other people’s homes, has become a significant policing activity in the United Kingdom. Drawing on ethnographic data and the deviancy amplification spiral model, this article theorizes how police responses to cuckooing emerged, developed and became established. Five stages of the spiral are outlined: identifying cuckooing as a problem; demonstrating a response; spreading the problem; making it other people’s problem too; the establishment of a policing priority. The article advances amplification theory by considering it from within the setting of the police and the contemporary drug supply context of County Lines. It concludes by stressing the importance of critically considering the dynamic relationship between the police and their drug market targets.

“We’re Not Where We Should Be”: Enhancing Law Enforcement Responses to Hate Crime

In an era when reported hate crimes are increasing dramatically, it is troubling that there appears to be, at best, an uneven response to the problem from law enforcement in Canada. Our pilot study of policing hate crime in Ontario is the first attempt to understand whether and how law enforcement think about and act on hate crime. Interviews with officers in eight police forces across eastern and southern Ontario ( N = 38) uncovered three clusters of factors that appear to shape how they manage hate crime: environmental, organizational, and individual. What we offer in this paper is a series of related recommendations for enhancing police responses to hate crime along each of the three dimensions.

Policing Intimate Partner Violence

This chapter explores women’s experiences with police responses to intimate partner violence (IPV), considering three interrelated themes that emerged from the women’s experiences. These themes were police failing to understand the dynamics of IPV, especially failing to recognize nonphysical forms of IPV; women’s sense that the police were aligning with the abuser; and police failing to intervene when there were children in the relationship. The chapter also highlights some of the positive interactions women experienced with police and some of the unexpected safety strategies, involving police, that they developed over time. The chapter concludes with suggestions about how to encourage change in the police response to IPV.