Downtown Ottawa pilot project for distress line to complement 988

A pilot project that will see community health workers dispatched to people in distress will roll out in Ottawa’s Centretown district next year. Experts expect it will complement the 988 emergency number which the CRTC approved last year. Under the new regime, people in distress or those worried about them may call a three-digit number and connect with the appropriate health providers. A pilot project in Toronto is using the 211 number. It has not yet been determined what number will be deployed in Ottawa. The city councillor for the region is excited for the new plan. “The idea is very similar to models that have been tried in Toronto, and Denver, Colorado, and Portland, Oregon, to have essentially an alternative to 911 for calls that are related to mental health, addiction, poverty, homelessness,” Ariel Troster told the Wire Report in a phone interview. Michellle Hurtubise, executive director of the Centretown Community Health Centre, said there have also been trials in Montreal and Vancouver. She welcomes the alternative to 911 and police involvement. “A team of community workers that will include peer support workers, so individuals with lived or living experience of mental health or substance use, will go and respond to that call instead.” she said. She pointed to the police killings of Ottawans Abdirahman Abdi in 2016 and Greg Ritchie in 2019 as prime examples of why people in mental distress distrust the authorities and are reluctant to use 911 during a crisis. Troster agrees. “The idea is to send the right people to help folks in that situation,” the councillor stated. “We know that police involvement can escalate a lot of mental health and trauma issues.” Both women stress that the new line will augment the work that the 988 number will do. “The 988 number is part of a national strategy around suicide awareness and prevention,” Hurtubise noted. “It’s much like a telephone crisis line of support that’s available. What’s different about our line is that somebody will actually be able to go and respond to an individual. “The 988 number is really a telephone crisis response and nobody will come and provide hands-on support.” The City of Ottawa is seeking proposals by the end of this month. By November it will begin interviewing finalists and expects to announce a winner by December. That party will have until July 2024 to establish the helpline. Hurtubise said the Centretown Community Health Centre is preparing a bid alongside the Somerset West Community Health Centre. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca

Downtown Ottawa pilot project for distress line to complement 988

News | October 17, 2023

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Downtown Ottawa pilot project for distress line to complement 988

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