paramedic plan draws concern over mental health strategy

by: jon willingthe ottawa paramedic service wants to create a paramedic-led response team for mental health calls, prompting one councillor to worry that city hall will have all sorts of mental health strategies rather than a single plan.during a community and protective services committee meeting on thursday, paramedic chief pierre poirier provided the broad strokes to a plan he’s putting together that would create a special response team.poirier said he intends to table a report later this year that would discuss his vision for mental health response teams, while taking into consideration the province’s new requirement for municipalities to write a community safety wellbeing plan. he called for a “coordinated approach.”“this is not us doing this in isolation,” poirier said. “this is us doing it within the broader community, everyone from law enforcement services through to the royal ottawa and mental health services.”a response team would have a paramedic and another “allied health professional” attending calls, poirier said. the goal would be to divert people from the hospital to more appropriate care, he said.however, coun. diane deans saw trouble.it wasn’t poirier’s plan that necessarily rankled the veteran councillor. deans was concerned that community mental health responses will be fragmented across the municipal government when she believed there should be one cohesive strategy.in addition to chairing the police services board, deans chairs the board of crime prevention ottawa, which advises on the community safety and wellbeing plan.“what has become increasingly clear to me over the last number of months is that we need the city to take a lead in a coordinated mental health strategy that brings together all of the parties across the city,” deans said, adding that she fears a confusing “siloed” approach.for example, ottawa police have also been working on a mental health response plan.a single strategy should be led by the heads of the emergency and protective services and ottawa public health, deans said.poirier agreed his plan shouldn’t be disjointed from a larger effort, but there’s a sense of urgency at the paramedic service to act rather than waiting years for a perfect strategy. he said he believes a paramedic-led program that’s “imperfect but good” would be bring short-term wins.one idea, poirier said, is simply identifying mental health calls when they come into the communications centre.a similar program has existed since 2013. paramedics have been working with ottawa inner-city health, shepherds of good hope, the ottawa hospital and the ottawa police service to bring homeless people with mental health issues to a specialized clinic. in 2020, nearly 900 people were transported to the shepherds of good hope rather than a hospital.the committee didn’t take a position on a motion presented by deans to have the management of emergency and protective services develop a community mental health strategy and report back before the 2022 draft budget is released. instead, the committee wants council to consider the motion on wednesday.kim ayotte, the acting general manager of emergency and protective services, voiced concerns about having not enough resources to develop a strategy within months.the city’s emergency and protective services department and ottawa public health are in the thick of managing the covid-19 crisis and vaccine rollout.jwilling@postmedia.comtwitter.com/jonathanwilling