Community Mobilization Sudbury helps people in crisis

A Sudbury program that helps people in crisis is growing just six months after it was started.

Community Mobilization Sudbury’s job is to help people in trouble.

Sudbury Police Cst. Joanne Russell said one example would be a homeless person who officers can’t help, despite repeated calls. The person could be referred to Community Mobilization Sudbury.

There, the person would be assessed and a plan made to co-ordinate services like housing and health care.

Russell said this aims to help solve the person's problems, and frees police up to do their job.

“There’s a lot of people I know who took a lot of resources of police — and that we dealt with on an ongoing basis,” she said.

“[With the program in place] there has been less of a draw to deal with this individual.”

Community Mobilization Sudbury manager Stephanie Lefebvre said the safety net has grown from eight to 18 social agency partners in six months.

Lefebvre said they've dealt with about 60 referrals, but there are some gaps.

“One of our early cases was related to not having accessible shelter services,” she said.

“So [we need] more emergency shelter services for those with physical disabilities.”

Lefebvre said another gap was not finding help for three people with developmental delays, combined with mental illness.

She noted waiting lists for services are still a problem.

“It's really only those at highest risk that get immediate kind of service and, in the ideal world with unlimited funding and unlimited human resources, we would want to see better capacity.”

The Northeast Health Integration Network provides most of the funding for the program.