SIOUX LOOKOUT - A pilot program launched last February between Meno Ya Win Health Centre and Sioux Lookout OPP which assisted police officers when attending calls for mental health issues will continue after a successful year.
In a news release issued this week, the Northwestern Health Unit announced after the original pilot project ran from February 2019 to February 2020, the program had received additional funding support through Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program to expand and improve the program.
“We were successful in receiving just over $ 1.8 million over four years until March 2024,” Gillian Lunny, manager of sexual health and harm reduction with the Northwestern Health Unit said in an emailed statement.
The project will build off the initial Joint Mobile Crisis Response Program which was a shorter-term collaboration and employed a single mental health clinician who worked directly with frontline police to respond to mental health and addictions police calls for service. The Joint Mobile Response Team was able to connect with approximately 150 people experiencing a crisis, the release said.
The goal of the new project is to provide timely access to mental health and addictions services and reducing the number of incidents that result in emergency department visits and criminal charges, the media release says.
The new Crisis Response and Harm Reduction Mobile Outreach Team will consist of nurses, counsellors from Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority’s mental health department, and a physician to increase capacity around crisis response, harm reduction and case management in Sioux Lookout.
Although planning for the project has begun, due to the COVID-19 pandemic it is unclear when it will become fully operational.
“We are in the process of recruitment now for some of the positions and hope to have the remaining postings up by mid-November,” Lunny said.
The project will also support an after-hours call in and text line managed by Nahnahda-Wee-ee-Waywin which proves 24/7 crisis intervention services to individuals in remote communities.
