Calls for help up at Mobile Crisis
As pandemic restrictions lift, more people are reaching out
With COVID-19 pandemic restrictions lifting, more people are reaching out to Saskatoon’s Mobile Crisis service.
Some of the issues people had “put on the shelf” are bubbling to the surface and people are reaching out, said Rita Field, the executive director of the Saskatoon Crisis Intervention Service, which oversees Mobile Crisis in the city.
“People who wouldn’t ordinarily need to reach out, needed to,” Field said. When a cascade of restrictions and closures started to take effect due to provincial public health orders meant to contain the pandemic, calls to Mobile Crisis went up. Field said people needed a lot of support and information and staff were hearing from people who were stressed, in distress and experiencing anxiety.
As the isolation wore on, Field said things began to settle down for a while. But with the typical summer increase in calls coupled with people trying to return to as much of their pre-pandemic lives as they can as restrictions ease, Field says things are busy again.
She says some of the increased call volume is likely due to people who held off on seeking help at the height of the restrictions. Other callers may have pre-existing conditions that were exacerbated by the “global stress” of the pandemic and feelings of loss of their old way of life.
Mobile Crisis has between two and seven staff available 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
“We’re doing the best with the resources we have and we’re responding to up to 30,000 calls a year,” Field said. A quarter of the time, they see people face-to-face.
Mobile Crisis and the Saskatoon Crisis Intervention Service was founded in 1980 to add a “softer” response to the emergency continuum — which consists of police, the fire department and paramedics — and a generalist crisis service, Field explained.
The SCIS and city police, along with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, have been partners on the Police and Crisis Team unit, which consists of one police officer and one crisis worker, who are dispatched to mental health and addictions-related 911 calls.
According to the annual report of the Saskatoon police Vulnerable Person Unit, released earlier this year, PACT had 692 new referrals, 610 of which were related to mental health and/or suicide risk in 2019.
The unit’s aim is to divert people from emergency rooms and police detention cells. Last year, it diverted 143 people from emergency departments and 15 people who otherwise would have been arrested.
But PACT is only available 10 hours a day with the current coverage that is available, and Field said the message is out there that they could use another PACT team to provide more coverage. Both PACT and Mobile Crisis programs depend on government funding.
“We are under-resourced for the demand and the complexity of the demand that’s coming in our direction right now,” Field said.
The Starphoenix has contacted the Ministry of Health for comment, but one was not immediately provided.