A street-level program designed to help those who have suffered an overdose is marking two years of service.
The Mental Health and Addictions Response Team, or MHART, is a partnership between Essex-Windsor EMS and Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare.
The program pairs a paramedic with a social worker who respond to 911 calls for noncritical, low- to moderate-acuity mental health and addictions issues.
Vice President of Mental Health and Addictions at HDGH, Tammy Kotyk, says the program will follow up with people after they've gone to the emergency room for an overdose or even a 911 call for an overdose.
"Quite often, Narcan is administered, and many of these people do not want to be transported to the hospital," she says. "So what we can do at that time is bring service to an individual in the moment, where they are and when they need it. That often includes linking them and connecting them to individual community support and recovery options; it could be safety planning or harm reductions."
Throughout 2023-2024, the MHART team undertook 645 home visits, 850 virtual visits, and spent 52 days doing community outreach.
The visits included service coordination and case management, medical support, counselling, and physical assessments.
Kotyk says this is about meeting people where they are.
"911 is called because the person had an overdose or was found unresponsive. It was intentional; they have a substance use disorder, and 911 is called. Quite often after Narcan or something else is administered, they find transport to the hospital. So this is a chance for that engagement to occur in the moment," she says.
Kotyk says this really fits into the group of outreach programs in the community.
"Just like our policing and nursing teams, our social work-police teams just add to the menu of services that are out there. It's really about meeting individuals where they are at that time. It's aimed at offering patients in-the-moment support and follow-up care," she says.
In 2023-2024, the team added a second full-time social worker to provide coverage seven days a week, twelve hours a day, which helped decrease 911 calls for engaged clients in a range of 30 per cent to 50 per cent.