When experiencing a mental health crisis, many people rely on emergency services such as 9-1-1 dispatchers, paramedic services, police services and hospital emergency department (ED) services. Many of these first response services lack sufficient resources and training, which results in few options to offer when providing care. For people experiencing a crisis or mental health emergency in the community, the response they receive and their options for support and care profoundly affect their immediate wellbeing and future interactions with mental health supports.

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Drawing on our research findings, our research team developed a framework of mental health crisis care to inform practices in Ontario, Canada and potentially beyond. Our goal was to bring together the perspectives and insights of the paramedics and police attending to many of these calls, the emergency department, the community-based organizations who provide services ongoing and during crisis, the perspectives of people with lived experience who have accessed emergency services for mental health supports or who have had these services called for them. Drawing from existing literature, innovative programs and services already in practice, and learning from participants’ needs, the goal was to amplify these perspectives and honour the work already being done and calls to action that exist in these spaces. This training draws on these findings and highlights findings from our full report.