Saskatchewan RCMP have welcomed two psychiatric nurses to the Operational Communications Centre at RCMP Depot in Regina.

The nurses will be able to be called by RCMP members attending to mental health-related situations.

Sgt. Burton Jones says the program has been in the works for two and a half years, and is a way for RCMP to work differently.

“In our old approach, we only had one way if we had to do an apprehension of a mental health act, we would go and do that and take them to a hospital,” said Jones. “We’re not mental health professionals by any means, we’re trained to de-escalate situations involving mental health, but why not bring people to the table that are mental health professionals and can assist us.”

The pilot project will last for one year. In the first week of the program, there were a total of 24 calls, 18 of them saw the nurses provide assistance to the RCMP and the subject of the call.