CORNWALL – The United Counties of SD&G is being asked to permanently fund a Mobile Crisis Response Team.
It comes after county council heard Monday the Ontario government has turned down the SD&G OPP and Cornwall Community Hospital partnership for base funding.
It has submitted a joint proposal for permanent funding with Cornwall Police Services to keep the service sustainable.
“It was a big blow to all of us that our proposal was not (approved),” OPP Detachment Commander Marc Hemmerick said in a presentation Monday. “We really did have some high hopes. We really put a lot of time and energy (into it) and we know we had a very strong proposal for Ontario Health East (formerly known as the LHIN). We had the data to back it up.”
The team made 558 visits to 169 individuals in the last fiscal year. In the three months of this fiscal year, it’s been 178 visits to 89 people and the team anticipates the yearly number will be the same if not greater due to the prevalence of drug addition and mental health issues post-COVID.
A majority of the clients served were in Cornwall, Alexandria, Iroquois and Morrisburg and most cases are serious mental illness. The service also notes arrests on mental health calls are down 42 per cent and wait times for police officers at the hospital are down almost an hour.
County council has given $120,000 to MCRT the last two years. The money supports one full-time equivalent addiction and mental health therapist.
The team has been in place since October 2020.
While saying it’s “very disappointing,” Hemmerick says he won’t be deterred from finding other funding avenues and pressuring the government for base funding.
The team has received one for one full-time equivalent mental health worker through the Ministry of Health. The position is split between OPP and Cornwall Police Services. There is also an enhancement through OPP to expand service hours to 12 hours but that ends in March.
Many on council acknowledged the positive work the service has done in SD&G and suggesting lobbying the province for funding through the Ontario Good Roads Association (OGRA), Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) and Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conferences.
Coun. Jamie MacDonald (North Glengarry) called the service a “game changer” in SD&G and supported making funding for the team permanent.
“This is, in my mind, a community investment that needs to be considered…considered strongly,” Warden Tony Fraser summated.
The request will go to 2023 budget talks.