Mental health emergency team ramps up services

The team that responds to mental health emergencies in the St. John's area is branching out, after fielding criticism that emergency services were not available two days a week.

Eastern Health's Mobile Crisis Response Team, which is made up of psychiatric nurses and social workers who can assist people going through a mental health crisis, will be available to St. John's area residents seven days a week.

• Mental health needs not just 5-days a week, resident warns

The change takes effect on Sunday.

The service was launched in 2010 and is an alternative to the province's telephone crisis line. The mobile unit aims to cut back on the number of people going to hospital, as well as calls that might otherwise require police attention.

Isobel Keefe, the regional director of Eastern Health's mental health and addictions program, said she hopes the change will improve circumstances for both patients and healthcare facilities.

"When our staff can go out and help people resolve [a] crisis in the community, it can prevent emergency room visits, hospitalization and those kinds of things," Keefe said in an interview with CBC.

Before now, the service was only available five days a week.

Eastern Health did a review of the mobile unit earlier this year. That came after a resident raised concerns about RNC's ability to handle emergency mental health issues.

In April, Jeff Baggs of St. John's called the crisis team to get support for a friend. Baggs later told CBC News that he was shocked to hear that the on-site crisis intervention team only worked from Wednesday through Sunday.

Baggs said he was told to contact the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary instead.

"The police couldn't actually make that determination without there being some sort of public safety threat or an issue of property," Baggs said at the time.

"Police approach problems from the framework of the law as opposed to health - but we needed a health care professional in that moment."