The recently approved City of Toronto budget, which nearly doubled funding to the Toronto Community Crisis Service (TCCS), is a welcome step to better support people experiencing crisis. TCCS is a non-police-led mental health crisis response that some consider the city’s fourth emergency service.
Vulnerable people experiencing a mental health crisis too often face coercive pathways to mental healthcare, such as restraint and forced treatment. This is especially true for communities who disproportionately experience over-policing, surveillance and interactions with the criminal legal system, including Indigenous, Black and other racialized groups, 2SLGBTQ+ people and people with a disability.
It is vital that people experiencing a mental health crisis are responded to in a manner that is humane and respects their rights. The increased funding for TCCS supports the hiring of 13 additional staff and an expansion of the service throughout the city. This expansion is in addition to the city’s mental health and substance use plan to expand 24/7 low-barrier crisis respite spaces, including through the Gerstein Crisis Centre.
To have a sustained and meaningful impact however, more must be done.
TCCS also refers clients to community anchor partners for follow-up support, services and resources after a crisis response. This includes access to shelter and culturally relevant mental health and substance use services.
These services prevent a cycle of mental distress from happening and by providing people access to social determinants essential for mental well-being, such as economic stability, housing and healthcare. It is imperative these partners also receive the support they need, and that the TCCS is integrated into the system, to ensure people can be connected to the services they need when they need them.
The involvement of law enforcement in mental health crisis responses can lead to unnecessary use of force, risk of injury, re-traumatization upon contact, and further psychological distress in the long-term.
Like models implemented in other cities worldwide, TCCS, which launched as a pilot in March 2022, was developed in response to growing demands for non-police-led alternatives to non-emergency mental health crises. It is a component of SafeTO, Toronto’s 10-year Community Safety and Well-Being Plan.
In its pilot phase, TCCS covered about 64 per cent of the city and dispatched mobile teams of trained mental health responders to four areas identified as having the highest need: Downtown East, Downtown West, Northeast and Northwest. The service had promising outcomes in its first year, with 95 per cent of respondents reporting a positive experience with the service.
The trauma-focused and harm reduction approaches of TCCS avoid unnecessary criminalization of mental illness. Seventy-eight per cent of mental health crisis calls received by 911 were successfully diverted to TCCS during the pilot with no police involvement. If effectively scaled up, TCCS could be able to respond to 46,000 calls by 2026.
TCCS made progress in supporting populations who are more at risk of being directed to mental healthcare through forceful or involuntary means, including Black individuals (which represented 29 per cent of clients), Indigenous peoples (9 per cent) and people with a disability (59 per cent). Interviews with TCCS users have also revealed their experience with the service made them feel safer and helped them rebuild their trust in the first responder system.
For TCCS to have a sustained and meaningful impact on community safety and well-being, it is paramount that we address the root of the mental health crisis and continue work aimed at building a thriving and resilient city. This means providing sufficient support for TCCS and the health-promoting services clients access before and after a crisis.