Prince Albert, Sask., approves mobile crisis team to tackle overdose crisis
CBC
The City of Prince Albert has approved using a $3.6-million federal grant to launch a 24-hour mobile complex needs team aimed at preventing overdoses and improving community safety.
Supported by Health Canada’s emergency treatment fund, the initiative will ease pressure on emergency services and connect people to treatment sooner, the city says.
It’s being developed in partnership with the Prince Albert Police Service, Parkland Ambulance and the Prince Albert Mobile Crisis Unit.
Police chief Patrick Nogier said the goal is to get ahead of recurring issues that officers face daily.
“We knew that there was an opportunity for us to get in front of problems that have been really present for police for the last 10 years,” he said. “We respond to them, and by that time, there’s already an elevated degree of risk. It makes it very difficult to navigate through.”
Nogier said the new approach will let teams step in earlier to offer help, instead of enforcement.
“This really gives us an opportunity upfront to reach out to the public, to have interaction, build rapport, provide assistance, more so than having to respond,” he said.
And that’s something that can’t be done alone.
“There needs to be more of a strategic approach to this, and that will come as a result of sitting down with our partnering agencies, sharing information, making sure that we're having a really focused approach to helping people that need it,” Nogier said.
Prince Albert’s overdose death rate is roughly twice the provincial average. Mayor Bill Powalinsky said that reality required urgent action.
“It’s a way of co-ordinating our services — emergency services, the police, the mobile crisis unit — to look at ways we can have a very positive impact,” Powalinsky said. “We want to lessen the impact on families, loved ones and communities. It’s going to allow us to reach out further than we have before.”
He said the new team will complement the city’s upcoming complex needs facility, which will provide a separate response for people in sudden danger.
“The complex needs shelter is an immediate intervention, where somebody is doing something that’s putting them at risk,” Powalinsky said. “This approach is going to look at ways that we can circumvent people from having to end up in the complex needs centre. There’s a difference.”
Lyle Karasiuk, director of public affairs for Parkland Ambulance, said the partnership marks a major shift in how support is delivered.
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