Staffing issues delay ARCC program expansion

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This article was published 15/09/2023 (723 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A program deemed a success in connecting people experiencing mental health crises with help outside of emergency rooms can’t expand just yet, due to a clinician shortage, the Winnipeg Police Service says.

The Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis program was introduced as a pilot in 2021, with a goal to free up ER resources and improve responses to mental health calls.

The program sends two uniformed officers to provide the first response to well-being calls received by police. Those officers can then call in a team that includes a plainclothes officer and mental health clinician (occupational therapist, nurse, social worker or other specialized professional) to help the person in need, if an assessment deems that step both safe and needed.

The Manitoba government committed $414,000 to expand the program to seven days a week, from the current five, in June.

However, it’s not immediately clear when the program will be able to expand to daily service, despite its many benefits, WPS Chief Danny Smyth said during a Winnipeg Police Board meeting Friday.

“I’d love to see it expand further but there’s a shortage of clinicians and we’re trying to balance that,” said Smyth.

WPS said it hopes to add two clinician positions to a pool of professionals that offer the service, among their other duties. Smyth said he believes Shared Health’s ability to provide those staff has been affected by widespread labour shortages.

During the pilot project, ARCC took part in 882 events involving 530 people, according to a June provincial news release. The release says 82 per cent of those incidents were resolved by ARCC intervention alone and 91 per cent of the clients received mental health support in the community, instead of waiting for care with police officers at emergency departments.

The number of patients brought to emergency departments by police for a mental health assessment dropped by 29 per cent during the same period, the release states.

Smyth said he hopes the expansion can be completed soon.

“I think (the program has) demonstrated a path for (people) who are in crisis to either keep them in the community with the supports that they need or divert them into (programs)… Without (it), we’d be forced to go in through the emergency rooms of the hospitals and that’s not the way we want to do that. It ties up our resources and it ties up the ER resources.”

In an email, a Shared Health spokesperson said the provincial agency is committed to expanding ARCC and hopes to hire needed staff in the near future.

“The hiring process for these positions is proceeding as it normally does, beginning with an internal posting to determine if there are qualified candidates and now proceeding to publicizing the positions to external candidates, which began earlier this month… We are optimistic these open positions will be filled relatively soon,” the spokesperson wrote.

The ARCC program is currently available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga