Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

emergency services, ongoing consultative services, and educational services to patients
and the wider community. 10 These facilities include many of Toronto’s major hospitals.
(b) Mental health crisis intervention
15. Specialized services are provided in situations that require urgent medical or
psychological attention for people with serious mental illnesses. This range of services
includes the Service’s MCIT units, comprised of a police officer and a mental health
nurse; other crisis intervention teams such as the peer-based team operating out of the
Gerstein Centre; hospitals’ psychiatric emergency teams within their emergency
departments; and various help and support lines, all of which provide some form of
emergency help to people in crisis. 11 The topic of crisis intervention teams is addressed
in more detail in Chapter 11 (MCIT and Other Models of Crisis Intervention).
(c) Short-term crisis support beds
16. Short-term crisis support beds are an important resource in responding to people
in crisis. These 47 beds provide time-limited emergency housing coupled with highintensity
care for people in crisis. Thirty-four of these beds are designated for people in
crisis who have had recent or current involvement with the criminal justice system. They
are available at four community mental health organizations in Toronto: Cota Health,
CMHA Toronto, the Gerstein Centre, and Reconnect Mental Health Services. 12 These
organizations provide services that include psychiatric assessment, monitoring,
treatment, symptom stabilization, and assistance with securing access to case
management and long-term housing.
17. Each of the four community mental health organizations operating short-term
crisis support beds maintains one free bed for use by the TPS, should it be needed by an
officer encountering a person in crisis. Although in principle these short-term crisis
support beds can function as an effective means of diverting people in crisis away from
the criminal justice system and toward treatment, I have heard that these beds are often
unavailable.
(d) Mental health case management
18. Mental health case management services consist of individualized assessments of
needs for people with serious mental illness. Case managers assess individuals’
community treatment needs and coordinate their various services and supports, direct
10
Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, “Health Services in Your Community: Designated Psychiatric Facilities under the
Mental Health Act” (13 January 2014), online: Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
.
11
Mental Health Helpline, “Types of Mental Health Services in Ontario” (2014), online: ConnexOntario
[Mental Health Helpline, “Services”]; St. Joseph’s Health Centre
Toronto, “Crisis & Intervention”, online: St. Joseph’s Health Centre Toronto ; Canadian Mental Health Association Ontario, “Are You in Crisis” (2014), online: Canadian Mental Health
Association Toronto ; St. Michael’s Hospital, “Mental
Health: Psychiatric Emergency Service” (2014), online: St. Michael’s Hospital .
12
Community Resource Connections of Toronto, “Short term residential beds (safe beds)” (23 October 2008), online: Community
Resource Connections of Toronto .
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