Police in the Ottawa region often receive calls for social service-related issues, ongoing crisis incidents, and mental health challenges for children less than 12 years of age. Canada’s youth justice legislation, the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), only applies to children and youth between the ages of 12 and 17. This means that:

• there is no clear approach for responding to children under 12 who come in contact with police;
• there is no consistent approach for identifying the mental health and addiction service needs of these children and youth at their earliest contact with the justice system;
• considerable police resources (75 to 85 percent of service calls) are invested in responding to incidents for which charges cannot be laid and for which social service agencies need to be involved (Russell & Taylor, 2014 - PDF)

This Service Collaborative brought together 150 partners from diverse sectors across five regions, including:

• community;
• justice;
• police;
• mental health and addictions;
• education;
• primary care;
• developmental and child welfare; and
• family members.