We have alternatives to police officers for crisis calls

Re: Downtown is going downhill fast, April 29

In “Downtown is going downhill fast,” David Kilner highlights the seemingly inadequate police response to mental-health and substance-use issues in Peterborough, urging local politicians to look at solutions in major cities around the world.

Perhaps inadvertently, Kilner prompts: are police best-suited to respond to mental-health and substance-use calls?

In the City of Toronto, just this year, the Community Crisis Support Service pilot project launched: community-based mobile crisis teams (harm reduction workers, community health nurses, peer workers, etc.) respond to people experiencing mental-health crises instead of the police.

The Toronto organization Reach Out Response Network is responsible for advocating at the city level; essentially, “the right people with the right tools responding to the right situation.” Police have different training, expertise and scope; much better served elsewhere.

Nonpolice mental-health emergency response is not new. In Eugene, Ore., for over 30 years, CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets), has been offering just these services, accessed through dispatch, with considerable growth and a great track record in terms of community-based crisis team’s safety (a question people often have).

The CAHOOTS model has successfully been used as a template for similar projects around the world, including Reach Out Response Network’s report to the City of Toronto.

In Peterborough, we do have the Mobile Crisis Intervention Team, likely stretched, based out of the city police service, composed of a police officer and mental-health worker.

As needs are complex and likely to increase due to the housing crisis, alternative models need to be considered.

Check out Reach Out Response Network, Toronto’s Community Crisis Support Service and CAHOOTS and let’s continue talking.

Joleen Edmondson, Peterborough