New pilot program offering non-emergency mental health support launches in Dartmouth, N.S.

A new pilot program called CARE is offering non-emergency support for those in crisis in Dartmouth and Cole Harbour, N.S.

A new pilot program has recently launched with the goal of strengthening mental health support in the Dartmouth, N.S., area.

CARE, which stands for Crisis, Assistance and Response Team, is designed to provide in-person support for people experiencing non-emergency and non-violent crises related to substance use and mental health.

The program is a partnership between the Halifax Regional Municipality and community service providers.

“So 211 Nova Scotia is the front door to CARE and their community navigators receive the calls, determine if they’re appropriate for care and determine priority and then dispatch the team. Souls Harbour is our partner to deliver the in-person mobile supports, so they have a vehicle, and they send a team out to deal with the non-violent or calls of distress, or social need,” says Rachel Boehm, Halifax’s executive director of community safety.

The two-year program will also be monitored to determine if it is affective and meets its goals.

“And we also manage the program in terms of consistency and standards for service delivery and the training of the staff, just to ensure that its trauma informed, effective, skilled responsive and inclusive to all citizens in the municipality,” Boehm added.

Bamidele Bello, the city’s alternate response manager, says the response to the program has been good so far.

“The week of the launch we had four calls, including one from a community-based organisation that needed support for one of their clients,” she said. “It’s a service that is needed and when we launched it was welcomed with open arms.”

Boehm says the program is meant to bridge gaps between services that already exist, like the Mental Health Mobile Crisis Team and 911 for emergency support.

“(For) those really not in acute mental health crises, so people in distress, maybe having a relationship problem, maybe having gone through something really traumatic and just needing a little support to get through the crisis, our team can be there and we’re really hoping that at the end of the day people get the care they need,” he said.

To access the program, people can either call 211 as a person in crisis or as a third party.

“CARE will not respond to medical emergencies or situations where a gun is present or other weapons or where it may quickly escalate to violence. So once the community navigator at 211 realizes that this is a good fit for CARE, then they dispatch the CARE mobile team,” Bello said.

The pilot currently runs from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday and serves Dartmouth, Woodlawn and Cole Harbour.

In January, it will expand to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“And it will be closely monitored for two years post-launch with the goal of, if it reaches its stated goals and makes a difference for our community and really connects people to the kind of support they need and reduces the pressures on some of our emergency services for calls that are more social or distressed in nature, then we hope that will expand to serve a broader geographical area and perhaps involve more service providers,” Boehm said.

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