A new on-the-street crisis response program launched almost six months ago is diverting roughly 87 percent of the clients away from hospitals in Windsor.
In early April, the Windsor Police Service and Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare formed the Crisis Response Team, which has police officers and social workers, who have expertise in mental health and de-escalation techniques, deployed together to respond to mental health and substance abuse issues within the city.
Since the program launched, the CRT has already handled 1,782 calls for service to support individuals in crisis as well as conduct wellness checks, locate high-risk missing people, and help those who have overdosed on drugs.
Kevin Matte, Integrated Director for Mental Health Outpatient Services at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, says a police officer by themselves will air on the side of caution and bring someone to the hospital.
"When you have a clinician live at the scene, they can work with the person, develop a safety plan, and set them up with community resources to avoid a kind of apprehension and being brought to the hospital. We've diverted around 87 percent of the clients the team sees; they do not end up in the hospital," he says.
These teams assist individuals presenting with symptoms of mental illness, substance use, and behavioural disorders, as well as people in acute crisis situations, with the goal of diverting them from hospital emergency rooms and freeing up front line patrol officers.
Matte, Integrated Director for Mental Health Outpatient Services at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, says the biggest impact is providing a needed service after traditional hours.
"There's a lack of urgent mental health care, especially on weekends and after business hours. That's the gap we're continuously trying to fill when we evaluate our programs and make process improvements. How do we get these services to people, where they are, and make them easily accessible in times when they're not traditionally available," he says.
The hours of operation for the CRT are seven days per week, from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m., providing overlap coverage with the Nurse Police Team during peak hours and reducing the number of calls to which patrol units must respond.
Windsor Police Inspector Jennifer Crosby says police are not mental health experts, and they are seeing added benefits beyond the statistics because the social workers are now there with officers on 12-hour shifts.
"Because they are a secondary response to patrol, they go with patrol," she says. "Once it's determined to be a call for service that's best handled by the crisis response team, then patrol can leave, free up, and go to other calls for service that are always waiting"
Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare is providing $850,000 per year to fund the Crisis Response Team.
The CRT and the Nurse Police Team programs are key elements of the city's $3.2 million Strengthen the Core Plan, which is aimed at revitalizing and improving safety in downtown Windsor.