Win! Victoria’s new Community-Led Crisis Response Team starts work
On May 25th, AVI Health & Community Services announced that the Community-Led Crisis Response Team (CLCR) is now available between 2pm and 9pm, Monday through Friday. CLCR is a peer-assisted care program and a mobile crisis response team led by persons with lived/living experience and mental health professionals, who are able to de-escalate crises and develop community care plans with persons experiencing crisis.
One of GVAT’s first major events was a ground-breaking forum in 2018 at the Shambhala Meditation Center bringing concerned citizens, those with lived experience and decision makers together to discuss effective ways of responding to mental health and addictions. We found out that using first responders trained to deal with crime was often not the best option for anyone. Members of the Mental Health and Addiction Research Team met with a team in Eugene, Oregon to learn about its success in developing community support for a successful alternative for crises involving mental illness, homelessness, and addiction. We also studied some Canadian examples.
Then we began bringing major stakeholders together, building a consensus around the desirability of providing alternative responses. GVAT participated in the South Island Mental Health and Substance Use Navigation project. We also participated in the development of a community wide stakeholder round table to design a tailor-made approach for the region. It was originally called the Peer Assisted Crisis Team (PACT) initiative, which has since been re-named the Community-Led Crisis Response Team (CLCR). Jonny Morris, CEO of the BC Division of the Canadian Mental Health Association which is running the round table as a pilot project, credits GVAT for its key role in building stakeholder engagement and ensuring accountability for future sustained funding.
Like most wins, this one is partial. GVAT would like to see permanent funding for 24/7 CLCR service covering the whole region. The Vancouver Island Mental Health Society has an informative podcast on Victoria’s new community led crisis response team.
AVI Health & Community Services is hiring for multiple Community-Led Crisis Response Team positions. The team can be reached at 250-818-2454 between 2pm and 9pm, Monday through Friday.
More context on the PACT/CLCR initiative is available in the 2021 Capital Daily article Victoria creates pilot project to send crisis teams in place of police to some mental health calls and the May 2022 Capital Daily article 'The wrong tool for the job': Victoria police have a fraught history with mental health calls. What's the alternative?
