The Windsor Police Service and Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare are evolving some existing programs into one new one to help address growing mental health and substance abuse issues in the community.
The new Crisis Response Team replaces the Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team (MCRRT) and the Community Outreach and Support Team (COAST).
Bill Marra, President and CEO of Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, says it's really about taking existing resources and understanding if they're creating the impact they were intended to do.
"We've been part of mobile teams for 15 years, and COAST and MCRRT have been incredibly effective," he says. "But it is time now—long overdue, in fact—to revisit the models out there and revisit the staffing structures to evolve with the needs of the community."
The new team will see police officers and social workers, who have expertise in mental health and de-escalation techniques, deployed together to respond to issues within the city.
The CRT will also see increased operations from five days to 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.
Marra says they needed to do a better job of responding in a timely fashion and respond during peak periods.
"We weren't responding when we needed to and where our clients and patients were; that's the reality of it; we learned from that," he says.
In 2023, Windsor Police responded to more than 3,078 calls for service involving people in crisis—an 11.3% increase over the previous year.
Marra says the new Crisis Response Team is helping to close a gap in service and support.
"It is closing a gap—not all the gaps, but a gap, a very significant one," he says. "Again, I think the most important thing we do after today is measure and understand the impact this is having, because if there need to be further changes, we'll step up and do that, one way or another."
Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare is providing $850,000 per year to fund the Crisis Response Team.
On Wednesday, healthcare and policing officials announced expanded hours for the CRT and the Nurse Police Team with Windsor Regional Hospital to address substance abuse and mental health issues in the city, specifically downtown.
The two programs are a key element of the city's $3.2 million Strengthen the Core Plan, which is aimed at revitalizing and improving safety in downtown Windsor.