‘Time for change’: Toronto launching service to respond to mental health crisis calls

The mobile unit will meet with the individual in crisis and figure out what they need. Response teams will then check on the person within 2 days and help arrange further support.

When a mental health crisis call comes in to 911 in certain parts of Toronto next month, a team typically consisting of two people such as a harm-reduction worker and a nurse, or an Indigenous elder and a de-escalation expert — not police — will be the first to respond.

The mobile unit will meet with the individual in crisis and figure out what they need. Response teams will then check on the person within two days and help arrange further support, such as long-term counselling, as required.

It’s all part of a new approach to crisis intervention in Toronto that’s beginning with a pilot program launching in a few weeks.

The City of Toronto — which plans to eventually implement the program in all neighbourhoods — describes the effort as a community-led, trauma-informed alternative to traditional crisis response, with a focus on reducing harm and preventing problems from arising.

“The idea is that we don’t need a law enforcement approach when the issue is a mental health crisis, a substance abuse crisis, that those are health issues, they’re not criminal issues,” said Denise Andrea Campbell, the city’s executive director of social development, finance and administration, who is leading the program.

“The appropriate response (is) health supports, not enforcement officers.”

The pilot program will operate in four areas of Toronto where apprehensions under the Mental Health Act and 911 calls for people in crisis are the highest.

At first, calls to 911 will be funnelled to the new community crisis support program, but eventually, Campbell said, mental health crisis calls can go straight to 211 _ Ontario’s community and social services helpline.