A new initiative will see Windsor police and social workers paired together to help children in mental health crisis.
The Windsor Police Service and Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH) announced Friday the launch of the Youth Crisis Response Team (YCRT.)
The new initiative will provide police officers with access to a dedicated youth social worker from HDGH's Regional Children's Centre (RCC) when responding to mental health-related calls involving youth under the age of 16 to provide on-the-spot mental health support, safety planning, and coordinated follow-up to help youth and families get the care they need quickly.
Between 2023 and 2024, criminal code occurrences in Windsor and Amherstburg in which one or more youths were charged increased by 43 per cent. During the same period, incidents involving youth offenders rose by 51 per cent, while calls involving a youth in crisis increased by 29 per cent.
Windsor Police Chief Jason Crowley says this is a modern need.
"Our officers go to these calls daily, and we hear them loud and clear; this is what we're seeing," he says. "Then we work with our partners, and this is what they see. Let's put a strategy together and really tackle it the right way, and let's make it right the first time."
The initiative follows several other collaborative response programs, including the Nurse Police Team (NPT) and the Crisis Response Team (CRT), that have paired frontline officers with nurses from Windsor Regional Hospital to respond to substance use and mental health concerns, while the CRT partners crisis intervention-trained social workers from HDGH with police officers to provide on-scene crisis de-escalation.
Crowley says those similar program models have 'moved the needle' for police.
"This model is being mirrored in other communities, which we're so proud of. This is a made-in-Windsor solution that we are so proud of, and we see how well it works, to the point that the government recognizes the significance of the program," he says. "That's really the success of the other models; this is a really easy step toward that because it works."
"We can get them into the RCC, we can work with Maryvale, and we can work with Children First. If necessary, we would bring them to the ER if it's an urgent and pressing matter," he says. "This is really valuable because it keeps them out of the institutions, it keeps them out of the hospital beds, and it keeps them at home with some support."
Windsor-Tecumseh Conservative MPP Andrew Dowie announced a $240,000 grant from the Government of Ontario to support the program, with the funding going toward the hiring of a full-time youth social worker, delivery of enhanced training for frontline officers, and continuous program coordination and evaluation.