Mobile crisis response team showing positive results, Sudbury police say

A program established to help police deal with mental health calls has been successful, six months into its mandate.

In 2021, Greater Sudbury Police Services, Health Sciences North and the Ontario Provincial Police, announced they were mobilizing a Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team (MCRRT) a team of officers and clinicians who would respond to 911 calls that involved someone in a state of mental distress.

This comes after concerns that police were responding to situations they weren't fully equipped to deal with, sending people who needed mental health assistance into the emergency rooms, or worse, jail.

The program is part of "reframing" how police deliver services, GSPS police chief Paul Pedersen said when teams eventually hit the streets in June 2021.

Six months after the program began, Sgt. Matt Hall, who coordinates the team in Sudbury, said the results have been positive.

"We're seeing very good stats when it comes to diverting community members away from the hospital or emerge," Hall said. "We've attended 119 total calls with our officers and our cliniciansand of those, 95 of them have been resolved at the scene or after some kind of follow up."

Many of those calls, Hall said, are related to domestic incidents, where drugs or addiction issues add a complex layer to the dynamic between police and people who may be in danger.

"In those cases, we don't need to apprehend this person and bring them to the hospital setting."

Keeping people away from the ER has become increasingly important, as COVID-19 cases swamp understaffed hospitals, Hall said.

"The most important aspect of allthis is providing a better service for our community members," Hall said.

"We're providing them an option to get the help they need within their own homes and not have to go outside of their home and wait in the hospital two hours for service."

Other jurisdictions have established their own MCRRTs, Hall said. Hamilton, Peel, Toronto and Windsor have all set up similar approaches to deal with mental health calls.

The programs are funded by the provincial government, who in November 2020 announced a $6.5 million investment to help establish teams dedicated to dealing with mental health calls.