Halifax launches new citizen mental health crisis team
Halifax has launched a new civilian team to help people in the Dartmouth region as an alternative to call the police.
Two -year pilot project is called Care – Crisis Help and Reaction – According to a release by the Halifax Regional Municipality, began on Monday.
The program is distributed by the Sols Harbor Rescue Mission, which supports anyone 16 years and relates to non-fruitful, non-violent crises related to mental health, personal welfare or use of substance.
The team members will be mobile and offer help such as increasing a crisis, making security plans, bringing someone to a safe place and helping people to connect people with community support.
Release said that care employees are trained in traumatized care, loss of loss, mental health first aid and prevention of suicide. They are ready to respond to people of diverse communities “respectfully and effectively”, including African Nova Scotion, Swadeshi, 2SLGBTQ+ and Neurodivers.
The pilot will serve people from 8 am to 9 am on Monday to Friday, 8 am to 9 pm in the entire Dartmouth (peripheral highway 111), Woodlon and Coal Harbor. The service will expand for 24 hours in January 2026 for seven days a week.
Municipal community security personnel will oversee the program including evaluation and coordination.
People can call 211 for service, and a display will assess whether the care team is perfect fit. Release states that violence or arms emergency should still be controlled by calling 911.
Both the Halifax Regional Police and Halifax RCMP have talked about better serving people in support of more citizen-linked teams and help the officers for police duties.
After recommendations on 2022 reports of the municipality Halifax, a civilian crisis is looking to bring it to the model To blame the police, Mass Casualty Commission in 2023 And other research. It’s part of the city Public safety strategy, Which Regional Council approved in 2023.
Care team launched a few days after a report Serious event response delays from team and highlighting issues In the case of a 25 -year -old Halifax person, a health care system that was suffering from psychosis when he died During the arrest by the police earlier this year.
The report said no paramedics was sent in the February incident, even if the authorities have repeatedly radled for emergency health services. It also said that the man’s mother tried to be a provincial Mental health mobile crisis team Help his son, but it was said that he was a lesser employee and could not see him for at least two days.
The mental health mobile crisis team consists of social workers, nurses and specially trained police officers. This team provides 24/7 telephone assistance to people of any age across the province, and provides in-practice assistance within the Halifax field.
