A naked man behaving erratically and causing a disturbance in the University Hospital of Northern B.C.'s emergency room highlighted the grey area where police enforcement and health care intertwine on Sunday.
Following some debate over whether to take him to RCMP cells or a hospital room, the hospital was opted - but first staff had to control him.
"Our staff is there to provide medical care, they are not trained in the methods of securing people who are acting aggressively," said Northern Health spokeswoman Eryn Collins. "That is what security staff or in many cases police are called upon to do, just like in any other public place. But we do have the accommodations there to handle those sorts of patients when or if they are needed.
"We regularly work in co-operation with the RCMP in dealing with particularly challenging patients - regularly."
Such situations aren't as simple as wrestling a noncompliant but otherwise sane person to the ground, said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Craig Douglass, which is why senior Mounties and Northern Health officials "hold meetings on, I believe, a weekly basis" to stay abreast of these situations.
The subjects in these cases are behaving out of medical distress and altered mentality, not criminal intent, which changes the physical dynamics and motives of all involved.
"They wanted us to take him to our cells and bring him back in the morning to assess him, but we do not have legal authority to do that since he was not breaking the law, he was understood to be under the effects of a mental health issue," Douglass said.
"We can only arrest people who are breaking the law, which is what taking someone to cells is about. However, we can apprehend under the Mental Health Act and those people are taken to the hospital for an assessment by a mental health professional."
A room did not have to be found in this case; one was waiting for just such a purpose only a few feet away, said Collins.
"We have so-called 'soft rooms' that were created in part due to the recommendations of the Clay Willey coroner's inquest and they are used regularly," she said. "Two are located in the ER where people can go to settle down if they are acting out in that area and there are others located on the psychiatric unit, and those are called seclusion rooms. They are only used by those patients who have been formally committed or are, at that time, under arrest by the RCMP and the arresting RCMP must then remain on the site until they are formally assessed by medical professionals."
Several Mounties attended the ER on Sunday to ensure the aggressive patient went into medical care with no further danger to hospital staff, the public, or the subject himself. There was no further altercation, once they arrived. The medical care he was given after that was not disclosed.
"This happens, to this degree, not that often," said Douglass. "But we do deal from time to time with an aggressive mental health sufferer, and general police attention regularly involves people who are suffering from mental health conditions that bring us into contact with them. There were four yesterday [Sunday]."
In this case, the subject had been dealt with a number of previous times by both police and medical personnel.
