Victoria's police chief says a "staggering number" of police calls are mental-health related and his officers will have to pick up the pieces after recent cuts to mental-health services.

"There is no doubt that as a result of these cuts and reductions that our workload will increase," said Chief Jamie Graham, who predicts officers will be sent to more non-criminal matters to deal with mentally ill people who aren't getting proper treatment.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority cut 10 beds at the Eric Martin Pavilion, which means patients will have to be much sicker to get into the facility.

Graham worries that when people are escorted to hospital by police under the Mental Health Act, they will be given medication and sent on their way, instead of getting the long-term care they need.

He cites a 2008 Vancouver police study that says a third of all police calls involve people with mental illness, and while he doesn't have exact numbers for Victoria, Graham said the situation is similar here.

Police officers have experience helping defuse people in psychiatric crisis, Graham said, but they should be the first, not only, form of help.

"We'll be there but it's just an awful situation."

VIHA is also eliminating six adult addiction counsellors from its Urgent Short Term Assessment and Treatment program, while the number of staff following up with people discharged from psychiatric care will be cut by 20 per cent.

The support-worker cuts will leave approximately 400 patients with a dramatically reduced level of help, said Hazel Meredith, executive director of the B.C. Schizophrenia Society Victoria.

"Without support [for the mentally ill], I worry it will impact our already struggling homeless population ... and our community policing," she said. "This is indeed a crisis."

Meredith said family caregivers will also shoulder some of the burden from the cuts.

But Alan Campbell, VIHA's director of mental health and addiction services, said the level of service provided to the mentally ill on the streets has not changed. "We have very consciously not reduced any of our services focused on the downtown street-entrenched populations," he said.

Those services include the Assertive Community Treatment teams, which help homeless people with mental illness find treatment and housing.

Of the 1,500 homeless people on Victoria streets, Campbell said about 350 to 400 have mental illness or addiction disorders and the outreach team has found supportive housing for about 240 people.

Campbell said even with the current level of mental-health service, some people fall through the cracks. "So there is the possibility we will have bigger cracks," he said. "But we hope we've put enough measures in place so that doesn't happen."

The health authority plans to reallocate the $1.4 million cut from mental-health services in Victoria to up-Island communities that have been hit hard by the economic downturn.

kderosa@tc.canwest.com