Nearly 80 per cent of over 1500 mental health crisis calls made to Toronto police were diverted to a crisis response team during a six-month pilot project last year, according to the City of Toronto.
Toronto City Council received the Toronto Community Crisis Service mid-year progress report earlier this month, confirming the positive outcomes and community impact.
The data was gathered from the six-month evaluation report on the implementation and operations of the Toronto Community Crisis Service (TCCS) pilots.
TCCS successfully diverted 78 per cent of 1,530 calls received from 911 with no police involvement. They received a total of 2,489 calls for service from 911, 211 and directly to community anchor partners.
The report was completed by third-party evaluator Provincial System Support Program and Shkaabe Makwa with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The evaluation provides program data and analysis from the pilots’ first six months from March 31 to Sept. 30, 2022.
“Toronto Community Crisis Service is a landmark initiative, and these results show how valuable taking a holistic approach to community safety and well-being is,” Mayor John Tory said in the release. “This success shows how we are making great strides in supporting people in mental health crisis and ensuring there are community-based supports available to people.”
In most cases, mobile teams did not identify a need to involve other emergency services. TCCS made requests for police attendance during 2.5 per cent of calls attended and requested ambulance attendance during 1.7 per cent of calls attended.
Eight per cent of calls attended resulted in a visit to a hospital emergency department including, six per cent at the client’s request or team’s recommendation, one per cent due to medical emergency or identified need and one per cent were transported to hospital by the Toronto police.
Crisis teams completed 485 post-crisis follow-ups with clients within the 48-hour service standard and enrolled more than 25 per cent of service users in post-crisis case management.
For 799 cases, community-based referrals were made to clients during case management appointments. These included 231 referrals to mental health and substance use supports, 185 referrals to housing supports and 91 referrals to general healthcare supports.
“The city will continue to support pilot implementation with a focus on ongoing oversight and consistent service delivery across pilot areas,” the release says. “The city’s tabled 2023 operating budget includes a 25 per cent increase for TCCS to support enhanced service delivery and strengthened dispatch processes and includes additional investments for the City to provide backbone support to the pilots.”
Meanwhile, the Toronto police budget is set to increase by $50 million in the spending plan of the proposed 2023 budget.
A comprehensive evaluation report on TCCS will be brought to council this fall.
