Windsor crisis centre now open 24/7 for police, paramedic dropoffs

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Police and other first responders in Windsor now have an around-the-clock place to bring people who want and need mental health and addiction support.

Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare’s Mental Health and Addictions Urgent Crisis Centre on Ouellette Avenue has expanded its hours for those being tended to by law enforcement officers and paramedics.

The change is expected to alleviate pressure on local hospital emergency departments and allow police and EMS paramedics to get back on the road more quickly after dropping willing people off for psychological help.

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“It’s incumbent upon us to revisit our staffing models or models of care,” Hotel-Dieu CEO Bill Marra said Tuesday. “How can we do things better? How can we get people to the right care at the right time?

“This is not going to be the end-all, be-all. This will not solve all of our challenges. This is one more tool to enhance services, to get police and EMS back on the road where they belong quicker, and to allow, ultimately, that patient or client to get the care that she or he requires with follow-up.”

The local crisis centre, which previously had no overnight operations, is also adding four beds.

“Not closing the doors at 8 p.m. means that we can keep people here a little bit longer, create more opportunities for assessments, and determine what are better pathways for next steps, because it doesn’t end here,” Marra said.

“This is typically the point of first interaction with health care professionals, where they’re asking for help, and we can provide that support going forward.”

The expansion will cost more than $1 million, but it’s funding Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare is mostly “repurposing” from a pre-pandemic mental health initiative, Marra said.

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“We’re not doing this at the expense of other services or other programs.”

Windsor police Chief Jason Bellaire said he expects the expanded hours will have a “big impact.” Although the Mental Health Act gives officers the authority to apprehend people in crisis who may be a danger to themselves or others, they have little to immediately offer those with less acute psychological needs, he said.

“Don’t get me wrong, the police don’t really know anything about health care, but we know we get called to go address health care all the time,” Bellaire said.

“We’re trying to be humane, and we’re trying to do the right thing. And from a business point of view, we’re trying to reduce the number of negative interactions we’re having with police officers and people in the community in the margins of society that have needs for services.”

The downtown crisis centre first opened at 774 Ouellette Ave. during the pandemic. It has been operating at 1030 Ouellette Ave., next to Windsor Regional Hospital’s emergency department, since last June. 

Marra said the clinic served nearly 1,000 people from June to the end of December but could have easily served double that number.

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“This announcement marks the next steps in helping paramedics connect appropriate patients struggling with mental health and addictions with the care and resources they require, and creating capacity for paramedic teams that are out there on the streets,” said Slawomir Pulcer, deputy chief of Essex-Windsor EMS.

An existing partnership between EMS and HDGH, where community paramedics and social workers respond to mental health and addictions-related 911 calls, has led to a 50 per cent decrease in calls among engaged clients, Pulcer said.

The Canadian Mental Health Association’s Windsor-Essex County branch has multiple teams located at HDGH’s crisis centre, said branch CEO Nicole Sbrocca.

“We need to redeploy our resources, our criteria, to fit newer models,” she said. “We’re seeing more crises.”

For the general public, the crisis centre is open for walk-ins from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. Hotel-Dieu plans to make it a 24/7 operation for all after it has time to assess the expanded hours for emergency personnel drop-offs, Marra said.

“We need to phase this in to understand the complexity of patients that are coming through the door and what we can provide from a service perspective,” he said.

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