De-escalation is the goal, but it doesn’t always succeed. In some cases, mental health calls end with the use of physical force, restraint, or even lethal outcomes. For families and communities, these moments leave deep scars and raise urgent questions: why did it come to this, and could it have been avoided?
Why Force Is Used
Perceived threat: Responders may interpret confusion, withdrawal, or resistance as aggression.
Training defaults: Police are trained to control situations quickly, often prioritizing officer safety above all.
Limited tools: Without non-police crisis responders, situations may escalate before health-based supports arrive.
Systemic pressures: Understaffed hospitals and lack of psychiatric beds leave police as first responders in health crises.
Canadian Context
Wellness checks gone wrong: Several high-profile cases of police killing or injuring people in mental health crises.
Oversight reports: Coroner inquests and inquiries often recommend more training and alternative response models, but change is slow.
Provincial differences: Some provinces are experimenting with crisis intervention teams, but force remains common.
Community demands: Families of victims have called for removing police from mental health calls altogether.
The Challenges
Trust collapse: Every incident of force deepens mistrust between communities and crisis systems.
Intersectional risks: Indigenous, Black, and racialized people face disproportionate harm during force incidents.
Legal grey areas: “Reasonable use of force” is interpreted differently depending on context.
Last resort or first response?: Critics argue force is sometimes used prematurely, before alternatives are tried.
The Opportunities
Health-first response: Crisis teams with clinicians and peers reduce force incidents significantly.
Training for nuance: Teaching responders how to recognize neurodivergence, trauma, and cultural differences before labeling “non-compliance.”
Less-lethal tools with oversight: Where force is unavoidable, tools must be safe, transparent, and subject to review.
Clear accountability: Independent oversight for every use-of-force incident in a mental health call.
The Bigger Picture
Force in mental health calls exposes the system’s deepest contradictions: we call for help, and sometimes get harm. Until Canada invests in health-led, trauma-informed crisis responses, force will remain a tragic fallback — one that erodes both safety and trust.
The Question
If mental health is a health issue, why does it so often end with a policing solution? Which leaves us to ask: how can Canada build crisis response systems where de-escalation is not just the first option, but the one that always has room to succeed?
When De-escalation Fails:The Use of Force in Mental Health Calls
The Breaking Point
De-escalation is the goal, but it doesn’t always succeed. In some cases, mental health calls end with the use of physical force, restraint, or even lethal outcomes. For families and communities, these moments leave deep scars and raise urgent questions: why did it come to this, and could it have been avoided?
Why Force Is Used
Canadian Context
The Challenges
The Opportunities
The Bigger Picture
Force in mental health calls exposes the system’s deepest contradictions: we call for help, and sometimes get harm. Until Canada invests in health-led, trauma-informed crisis responses, force will remain a tragic fallback — one that erodes both safety and trust.
The Question
If mental health is a health issue, why does it so often end with a policing solution? Which leaves us to ask:
how can Canada build crisis response systems where de-escalation is not just the first option, but the one that always has room to succeed?