More mental-health help may be coming

Photo by Cecilia Nasmith.

By Cecilia Nasmith

The Cobourg Police Services Board heard good news at its January meeting after Vice-Chair Sean Graham voiced concerns over what he termed “skyrocketing” calls involving mental health issues – 355 in 2025, according to a report delivered by Deputy Chief Jeff Haskins.

“I have never thought it should fall on the shoulders of police,” Graham said, asking if the County of Northumberland or the Town of Cobourg have any plans for initiatives of their own to address the issue.

“There's a mental-health component to almost every interaction we have and call for services we respond to,” Haskins said.

In addition to adding a second mental-health social worker to their own team, he continued, meetings have begun on securing funds “to potentially hire a social navigator for the town that would be partnered with senior front-line service delivery folks so we can address some of the issues that impact some of our most vulnerable people in that cycle of addiction, being unhoused and some of the other impacts.”

Haskins sees the development as “attempting to divert situations that ordinarily default to the police to the appropriate wrap-around-care entity that should be providing that care.”