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Police and Crisis Teams (PACT) see RCMP and mental health nurses providing critical mental health services

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News release from Red Deer RCMP

Red Deer RCMP bring attention to suicide and mental health

As Sept. 10th approaches, Red Deer RCMP would like to take time to recognize the importance of World Suicide Prevention Day.

Suicide and mental health are difficult topics to discuss and often carry stigma and shame. Far too often these 2 things act as barriers and prevent people from getting the help they need and deserve.

Many individuals struggle with mental health on a daily basis. Asking for help or listening to a friend or family member can be difficult when we don’t know what to say or where to turn.

Red Deer RCMP would like to reach out to our community and fellow citizens to let them know they are not alone. As police officers we acknowledge suicide exists. Members receive training which prepares officers responding to calls for service when dealing with suicide ideations and suicidality.

In Red Deer we are fortunate to have two Police and Crisis Teams (PACT) that are specially trained in suicide and mental health. PACT is a collaborative partnership between Red Deer Primary Care Network (PCN) and Red Deer RCMP. Our PACT teams consist of a police officer paired with a registered psychiatric nurse (RPN).

For the last 12 years, PACT has been responding to mental health crisis calls providing initial intervention in Red Deer. Our PACT teams are well versed in dealing with suicide and mental health, and are often called upon for their experience alongside other police officers.

Our PACT team is an integral part of an innovative police response in our community.

We are proud to have RPN Michelle, Constable Floroiu, Constable Kokkola, and RPN John providing mental health response in our community.

If you, or someone you know is struggling with mental health or suicide, contact the Alberta Mental Health Help line, 24-hour service, 1-877-303-2642.

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Great Reset

U.S. rejects WHO pandemic amendments, citing threat to sovereignty

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MXM logo MxM News

Quick Hit:

The U.S. has officially rejected the WHO’s 2024 pandemic rule changes. In aĀ joint statement,Ā Secretaries Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Marco Rubio said the amendments threaten American sovereignty, free speech, and privacy—handing too much power to unelected global bureaucrats.

Key Details:

  • The U.S. State Department and HHS transmitted the official rejection of the 2024 amendments to the WHO’s IHR.
  • Officials cited threats to national sovereignty, vague terminology, and the WHO’s political susceptibility—particularly to China—as grounds for rejection.
  • The amendments would have mandated WHO-led responses, digital health documentation, and ā€œequitable accessā€ initiatives regardless of U.S. withdrawal from the WHO.

Diving Deeper:

The rejection represents a sharp rebuke of the World Health Assembly’s 2024 amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005), which sought to centralize global pandemic decision-making power within the WHO. Kennedy and Rubio emphasized the amendments’ ā€œvague and broadā€ language and their potential to create policy rooted in politics and global ā€œsolidarityā€ rather than science and national interest.

Among the most controversial changes were new authorities for the WHO to unilaterally declare health emergencies, coordinate international responses, and guide member states toward ā€œequitable accessā€ to vaccines and other health commodities. The amendments also encouraged countries to implement digital health documents—raising red flags for privacy and surveillance concerns.

ā€œThe amendments risk unwarranted interference with our national sovereign right to make health policy,ā€ the joint statement read. Kennedy and Rubio specifically criticized the lack of public input in drafting the new rules and warned that WHO directives could suppress legitimate scientific debate and restrict Americans’ freedom of speech under the guise of ā€œcontrolling misinformation.ā€

The officials pointed to the WHO’s well-documented failures during the COVID-19 pandemic, including its deference to the Chinese Communist Party, as a stark example of why international bodies should not be granted binding authority over U.S. domestic policy. ā€œThese amendments… fail to adequately address the WHO’s susceptibility to political influence and censorship—most notably from China—during outbreaks,ā€ the statement noted.

Even more alarming, the statement highlighted that the amended rules would have bound the U.S. regardless of its current status in the WHO, essentially imposing obligations on a nation that is no longer part of the organization. This drew particular concern from Rubio, who has long warned against ceding U.S. autonomy to global institutions.

In reaffirming their commitment to ā€œput Americans first,ā€ Kennedy and Rubio vowed to continue resisting international encroachments on U.S. freedoms. ā€œWe will not tolerate international policies that infringe on Americans’ speech, privacy, or personal liberties,ā€ they declared.

This formal rejection marks a victory for critics of globalism and top-down health mandates, signaling that under the current administration, American decision-makers are prioritizing sovereignty, transparency, and constitutional protections over global consensus driven by unelected bureaucrats.

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Addictions

From opioids to office: An interview with Alberta’s new addiction minister

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By Alexandra KeelerĀ 

Rick Wilson shares what led him into — and out of — addiction, his goals for Alberta’s recovery model and the value of an ā€˜Indigenous lens’

In mid-May, Alberta appointed Rick Wilson as the province’s new minister of mental health and addiction.

Wilson, who represents the MaskwacĆ®s-Wetaskiwin riding south of Edmonton, was Alberta’s longest serving minister of Indigenous relations, serving from 2019 to this year.

Now, Wilson is tasked with accelerating the implementation of theĀ Alberta Model, a recovery-oriented system of care that prioritizes addiction prevention, early intervention and treatment over harm reduction.

Canadian Affairs spoke with Wilson about his priorities in the new role, how his prior work with Indigenous communities shapes his perspective and what lies ahead for mental health and addiction care in Alberta.

AK: I understand you’ve been tasked with advancing the Alberta Recovery Model. What aspects of the model require the most focus in the term ahead?

RW: My goal is going to be to keep the momentum going. [We need to] get all the recovery communities opened up, keep expanding our supports, likeĀ CASA ClassroomsĀ [classroom-based mental health programs], and just keep filling the gaps for better information.

AK: Why was your predecessor, Dan Williams, shuffled out of the post?

It was a cascading event. Our speaker took a job in Washington, so we voted for a new speaker, Rick McIver. That left a hole in Municipal Affairs, [where Dan was moved]. I’d been bugging Premier Smith for more help with addictions and mental health. She said, ā€˜Go fix it then, I’ll put you there.’

AK: Do you have personal experience with mental health or addiction struggles?

RW:Ā Do you want the whole sad story here?

I used to raise a lot of cattle and had one really rank bull that was terrorizing the farm. One morning I tried to get him up, and it didn’t end well — he got me down, fractured several vertebrae in my neck and back, and collapsed my lungs. I don’t know how I survived, but somehow I did.

For a year, I couldn’t walk. I was in so much pain I didn’t even know who I was. I would literally pray for one second of relief. Whatever the doctor gives you, you’ll take it — Oxytocin to Percocet; you name it, I was on it. My wife said she’d give me a pill and an hour later, I’d be begging her for more. This went on for close to a year.

I finally had what’s called laser spinal surgery. I was one of the very lucky ones. I went into it in a wheelchair, but I came out walking, and the pain was gone.

About a week later, I told my wife, ā€˜I think I’m full of infection — I’m burning up with fever, I’m sweating, and I think they’ve nicked a nerve. I feel like I got a giant hole in me.’ She looked at me like I was crazy.

We went to the doctor. He said I was completely healed and asked, ā€˜What do they have you on?’ Then he said, ā€˜You just quit taking everything?’ I told him, ā€˜Yeah, there’s no more pain, so I just quit.’

He said, ā€˜Well, you’re in withdrawal.’

Once I knew what it was, I was able to tough it out, but it’s not a pleasant experience. I don’t think people are really trying to get high — you just don’t want to feel that alone. I literally felt like there was a hole right through me, like I was just empty inside. So I have a lot of empathy for people that are in addiction.

Rick Wilson was sworn in as the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions on May 16. | Rick Wilson via Facebook

RW:Ā When I was in Indigenous Relations, half my time was spent around addiction issues. It’s horrible. Out on the First Nations, there’s hardly a chief who hasn’t lost a son or somebody close to them. That’s all I did — go to funerals, one after another.

What I learned was you really just have to listen — and that’s one thing the government isn’t good at.

AK: What learnings from that role are you bringing to your new portfolio, and how do you see them benefiting your work in mental health and addiction?

RW:Ā I want to put an Indigenous lens on the whole thing. I think that’s the piece we’re missing. What I found most successful was to use theirĀ culture. Get the elders involved. They have the sweats, smudges and language. To take somebody’s language away is devastating.

You hear a lot about reconciliation, but I took it for real. My good friend Willie Littlechild said, ā€˜Minister, I want to see some reconcili-action.’ He said I could use that — so I do, a lot.

AK: Can Indigenous recovery models work more broadly for non-Indigenous Albertans?

RW:Ā I’ve really seen it work with non-Indigenous folks as well. But everybody’s going to be different. For some people, maybe Christianity is the way to go. And for some people, it’s Alcoholics Anonymous.

I think [the common thread] is that hope. [When you’re addicted] you feel hopeless.

I felt empty, and you need something to replace that emptiness. The problem is, you turn to alcohol, you turn to drugs to fill that gap, and that’s not going to do it. It’s a very temporary fix that just pushes you deeper down the rabbit hole.

Minister Rick Wilson celebrates the Pigeon Lake Regional School Class of 2025 on May 25. | Rick Wilson via Facebook

AK: Can you explain what a recovery community is, and how it fits into the province’s continuum of care?

RW:Ā The way they used to do it, you’d throw someone in recovery for a couple of weeks [and expect] that should cure it, then out you go. Well, that doesn’t work.

[Now] it’s more of a holistic approach: you go into detox, and then from there, you go into rehab. Some people fall out of rehab, [but they go] back into detox, and eventually you start working your way around the circle.

Transitional housing is key. You can’t just send someone back into the community without support — they’ll relapse. After housing, the focus is on community reintegration, finding work, and family support. It’s like an Indigenous healing circle — a full circle to prevent falling back into addiction.

We’re working on 11 sites — one in Red Deer, Gunn, Lethbridge and Calgary opening this summer. Seven more are planned, including Edmonton, Grande Prairie and five with Indigenous communities.

AK: SomeĀ criticsĀ argue that the Alberta Model leans toward coercive care, and that the benefits of involuntary treatment may not outweigh the risks and costs. How will theĀ Compassionate Intervention Act, which mandates addiction treatment, address those concerns?

RW:Ā Compassionate care isn’t just for the individuals [with substance use disorders]. We have to be compassionate for them, but we also have to be compassionate for the people in their community that are impacted.

In my own riding in the MaskwacĆ®s-Wetaskiwin — some people come in [to the hospital]Ā three times in a dayĀ that have overdosed. To overdose several times a day — you’re doing brain damage when you’re at that point.

These people are in dire straits, and we have to intervene with them, because they’re not even capable of thinking for themselves [or] to go for voluntary treatment. We want to give the people that are addicted that opportunity to rebuild their lives. Right now, there’s just a lot of enabling going on.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.


This article was produced through the Breaking Needles Fellowship Program, which provided a grant toĀ Canadian Affairs, a digital media outlet, to fund journalism exploring addiction and crime in Canada. Articles produced through the Fellowship are co-published by Break The Needle and Canadian Affairs.


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Break The Needle provides news and analysis on addiction and crime in Canada.
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