24-7 crisis diversion team: What it saves and what it costs Edmonton

Averting crises and helping people before things get worse for Edmontonians has been a money-saving endeavour, new numbers show.

At a panel presentation Monday, stakeholders in the city’s 24-7 crisis diversion team program heard that without the interventions offered by 10 vehicles on the road over a 24-hour period doing wellness checks or general support through proactive engagements, ensuing crises would have been far more serious, costing the system five times as much.

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Kelly Husack, director of community initiatives at REACH Edmonton, said data shows the services are a good investment.

“Within the program’s purpose of providing, in the moment, support to individuals experiencing vulnerability, we want to be able to help them get to a safer place and divert those crises that are not emergent away from emergency services. And by doing so, we see ourselves as contributing to a more efficient and co-ordinated continuum of response service,” Husack said.

While numbers from 2016 to 2018 showed a $1.91 return for every $1 invested, for the 2023 year the strategic return from the program is closer to $5 for every dollar invested by responding to non-emergent calls for help before they hit crisis level.

It’s the only publicly-available non-emergency response program in Edmonton, providing residents a resource for either themselves or others in the community that they may come across.

At the other end of the line, community resource specialists work with callers to determine the next appropriate step, perhaps a wellness check by dispatching a mobile team.

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“This is where we can begin to respond to community needs and be a compassionate option for situations not requiring emergency response,” Husack said.

The organization had a budget of $5.526 million in 2024 — with about $4.5 million coming from the City of Edmonton, $712,958 from REACH operations and in-kind partner contributions accounting for $406,462.

In a partnership with Boyle Street Community Services, the Canadian Mental Health Association, Hope Mission and REACH Council for Safe Communities, the community resource specialists at 211 answered more than 66,000 calls, with nearly half of those coming through on the 211+3 crisis diversion line.

There’s been a 65 per cent increase in contacts made over 2022 numbers.

In the vast majority of instances, the caller’s needs — often as straightforward as adaptive transportation — can be met. If not, a referral call is made.

Last year alone, there was a 49 per cent increase in the number of calls going into 211.

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Over the past year, the mobile team from the Hope Mission and Boyle Street Community Services have had 30,000 dispatches for their 10 vehicles.

In one cold snap this past winter, the teams were responding to an average of 120 dispatches per day — the busiest period in the program’s decade of history.

Depending on availability, mobile teams arrive on site within approximately 30 minutes on average from the time the dispatch is created.

On average, mobile teams are actually able to locate and connect with about 65 per cent of the callers, and some 97 per cent of those accept some form of help from the staff.

Last year, the mobile teams conducted 17,000 proactive engagements, reaching 46,000 individuals over and above dispatch events.

Among the interventions, the mobile teams successfully saved 140 persons affected by opioid poisoning.

Mina Ghoreishi is manager of navigation services at Edmonton’s Canadian Mental Health Association 211 program,

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“It’s been a game changer to witness what we can do to help serve the community. 211 is a single point of access to community services, including health, government and social services. Through this partnership, we’re able to help serve people even more in terms of providing compassionate, on-the-ground support to individuals in crisis who are not in emergency situations,” she said.

If you see something, say something — about one-fifth of the calls are from individuals calling in because they realized they themselves needed help.

While some 40 per cent of the calls came from related agencies such as emergency services, the majority of the calls came from individuals who realized they needed help, concerned friends, family, or neighbours, or just someone — perhaps even a private security guard or other compassionate stranger — who noticed someone struggling in a way that made a person worried about an individual’s wellbeing.

And not all of the interventions stem from phone calls.

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Nicholas Stone is senior manager of mobile support and community spaces at Boyle Street Community Services. He said people from the general public will flag the team down on the road.

“They’ll ask us if we could support this individual who’s lying on the ground,” he said.

Amanda Sandfly works in cultural community supports with Hope Mission.

A grateful graduate of their program, the mother of four was once a beneficiary of compassionate intervention.

A member of the Cree community, she found the program had an active tie-in to her faith and had a rehab element through Wellspring that helped her on her journey.

“Hope Mission opened their doors to me when I was released from jail,” she recalled, remembering days of active addiction and charges related to that.

“I was like, ‘Yes! Sign me up.’

“The ladies at Wellspring picked me up at the correctional centre,” she said.

Now sober eight years, Sandfly started out as a volunteer at Hope Mission, working her way up as a volunteer to become a staff member.

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“I definitely changed my whole life around, and Hope Mission helped with that,” she said.

For more information, visit crisisdiversion.ca.

jcarmichael@postmedia.com

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