Halifax hopes to launch civilian crisis response team in 2025

Halifax is hoping to launch a pilot project in the new year to have civilian experts — rather than police — help people in crisis.

Over the past year, staff with the municipality's community safety department have been consulting with non-profits and police, and researching how other cities run civilian crisis response teams. 

Amy Siciliano, Halifax's public safety adviser, said the free service would ideally operate 24/7 and be made up of teams of two people in an accessible van. The members would have a variety of training, she said, like non-violent crisis intervention, mental health support and suicide intervention.

They would respond to non-violent situations where no weapons were present. 

Right now, police or the provincial Mental Health Mobile Crisis Team, which includes a police officer, are often the only option for people in crisis — especially on evenings and weekends. 

"There's not one solution, there's not two solutions. The issues are really complex and you need to develop solutions that are going to meet people where they're at," said Siciliano.

The city is funding the pilot project, and Siciliano said she'd like to issue a request for proposals in 2025 for a service provider to run the program. The pilot would operate in a specific area of the city that hasn't been decided yet.

Halifax will also need a dispatch provider to take calls, and Siciliano said they're exploring whether the model could use the provincial 211 service.

The municipality has been looking to bring in a civilian crisis model following recommendations from Halifax's 2022 report on defunding the police, the Mass Casualty Commission and other research. It is part of the city's public safety strategy, which regional council approved in 2023.

The teams could respond to a variety of situations where people are in distress, like wellness checks, or a crisis related to mental health or substance use, Siciliano said. 

The experts could offer someone mental health support, take them to a safe place, provide basic needs like clothing, food or harm-reduction supplies, advocate for them and connect them to other health or housing services to meet their needs.

Jamie Livingston, a criminology professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, said it's clear that having police respond to crisis situations can be a "barrier" for people who need help.

Livingston said he conducted a survey last winter of 137 people who live with mental health and substance abuse issues. It found 89 per cent of respondents were either "uncomfortable or very uncomfortable" with police being involved in a crisis response. 

About 85 per cent of people were also uncomfortable with a police-involved mobile crisis team, Livingston said. Respondents were very comfortable with mental health clinicians, peer support workers or non-profit community agencies.

"What we're currently offering to people in terms of crisis response are things that they're actually quite uncomfortable with, which kind of calls for a new model and sort of emphasizes the need for what the city is doing," Livingston said.

He has said there are more than 180 communities around the world — mostly in North America — using civilian-led mental health crisis teams. Toronto launched pilots in 2022, while Prince Edward Island has had mobile units staffed by a paramedic and a mental health worker responding to calls since 2021.

Both Halifax Regional Police and Halifax RCMP have spoken in support of more civilian-led teams to better serve people and help free up officers for police duties.

Halifax staff also learned from REACH Edmonton, who have been co-ordinating a 24/7 service delivery model for high-needs populations for years, Siciliano said. On a ride-along with one of their teams, she saw members meet up in a park with a woman leaving a domestic violence situation, and take her to a shelter.

Siciliano said her team is consulting with the YWCA in Halifax to learn how the city's model could also support people in those types of situations here.

The provincial government has not committed funding to the Halifax pilot project, but it is operating one in a rural area of Nova Scotia.

This fall, Peer Outreach Support Services & Education (POSSE) signed a three-year contract with the province to develop a community-based mental health and addictions crisis response model to help people in West Hants.

A spokesperson with the Office of Addictions and Mental Health said a soft launch of the pilot is expected early in the new year, with full rollout later in 2025.