The new Peer Assisted Care Team is up and running in New Westminster – and has already responded to its first call.
After months of preparatory work, the mobile team – comprised of a mental health worker and a peer support worker – launched earlier this month. The idea is that the team will respond to the needs of individuals impacted by mental health and substance use, especially those who are marginalized and/or at higher risk of experiencing distress or criminalization from police contact.
“We're out there. So far, it's been pretty quiet; we're just slowly kind of doing our outreach,” said Nicole Sto Tomas, coordinator of the local PACT program. “But we did actually get our first call on Friday, so that was exciting.”
The team’s inaugural call came via New Westminster Fire and Rescue Services, whose members had responded to a call from a woman who has experiencing some physical health symptoms.
“When they had gone there, it sounds like they had concerns around her wellness,” said Sto Tomas. “The neighbours noted that she wasn't eating. She's experiencing a lot of anxiety. She lives alone and doesn't have any community supports. So they told us about this woman, and they said, ‘She's been cleared medically, but it seems like she has a lot of unmet needs, that a community crisis service like PACT could support with.’”
Sto Tomas said the PACT team went to the woman’s home and provided her with some supports around food programs, because that was one of her big concerns. They also left PACT contact information so she could call the team for assistance if she’s in a crisis in the future.
“She really just appreciated us coming in to do a general wellness check,” she said. “So overall, it was a really great first call and a kind of a perfect example of what our team hopes to do with this program. It's to be that kind of support that folks can call on when they're in a crisis, but a 911 response is not necessarily what they need.”
Sto Tomas noted that people in crisis need to consent to receiving support from the team before they assist.
“Luckily, she was open to our team going in and meeting with her,” she said, “and they had a nice chat.”
The team’s mental health worker and peer support worker (someone with lived or living experience with the types of calls PACT is expected to attend), will respond to crisis calls. They can help in a number of ways; offering support to an individual or their loved one over the phone or in-person; providing crisis counselling and de-escalation; facilitating connections to the appropriate resources, services and supports in the community to meet an individual’s underlying needs; providing advocacy and accompaniment to emergency departments, police stations, or community organizations; and providing short-term follow-up care after a crisis event.
Sto Tomas said it’s anticipated that team members will be responding to a variety of calls, including folks who are feeling isolated or having thoughts of self harm or suicide and people struggling with substance use or experiencing some family conflict. Some calls may come from individuals who are worried about a family member and feel they may need some extra support.
“So, kind of a wide range of things. Because this is a pilot, and we have only had one call, those are kinds of the things we imagined we'd be responding to,” she said. “But we also, as a team, have just been reading about the programs that are similar to ours and have been running in other places such as Toronto, Oregon and San Francisco. And it seems to be their calls seem to be around a similar thing – just someone who's in distress, who could really need some ongoing support, like ongoing support for longer term resources.”
Sto Tomas said the New West team has worked closely with local emergency services to let them know about the program and the opportunity to refer people to the program. By default, she said people usually call 911.
“For a long time, if someone's experiencing a crisis, or they're worried about someone who might be in crisis, typically you call 911. That's what we've been taught since we're kids – you call 911 if there's an emergency. But nothing else has existed,” she said. “I think the reality is, some of the calls that fire, paramedics and police respond to are folks in distress, but they just don't have the skills or the background or the expertise in providing the type of support that that person needs. So that's where our team comes in.”
New Westminster city council strongly advocated for the launch of a PACT pilot program in New West, believing it’s beneficial to have trained teams of mental health and peer support workers responding to calls about people in crisis, rather than police officers. In November 2021, council approved the city’s participation in the PACT pilot project.
“With the team, we have the expertise of someone who's lived through maybe some of the crises that callers will be experiencing, and they're able to connect on that level. And then we also have training in providing support around mental health challenges and crisis,” said Sto Tomas. “So it's that pairing of the two going out together, who could provide that support, who could actively listen, who could connect you then with maybe longer term case management or counseling, if that's something that you're looking for.”
The PACT team will visit the person in distress and provide them with support and resources, but it won’t have a long-term involvement with the folks it supports.
“The idea is that we are a support that can connect you to those longer term supports that you might need, as our kind of ability to do follow-up will be a bit more limited, as we are in crisis service,” Sto Tomas said.
PACT services are offered to callers aged 13 and up who live in New Westminster. To reach the PACT, which operates from noon to 8 p.m. seven days a week – call 778-727-3909 (it’s a landline so you can’t text this number).
“We had requested some data from both the fire and police departments around their calls in 2022, and they gave us information around the number of calls that had any type of mental health component, what hours they fell on,” Sto Tomas said of the program’s initial operating hours. “Using that data collected by fire and police, we just kind of tried to find the times where our program would be of most use, which we settled on 12 to 8 p.m. … That's what we've landed on right now. But we're also open to kind of seeing again, we're where the calls take us and where the actual need is.”
Should you call 911 or PACT?
If you or someone you know is in any type of immediate danger, call 911, said Sto Tomas.
“We are a crisis service, but we do understand that our background and our skills also has its limitations,” she said.
“So, in any type of immediate emergency, call 911.”
Examples of times when a call to PACT would be appropriate include when people are in distress due to challenges around their mental health or family issues, are feeling isolated and alone and are in need some supports, are struggling with substance use and wants some support and knowledge around that or are dealing with grief and loss that’s become a crisis situation.
“With all the calls that come in we do ask a few questions around what the crisis situation is to triage the call, and then if it is something that is suitable for PACT support. Then, we can get information on where you're at and meet the person where they're at,” Sto Tomas said. “If it is something that is not quite suitable for the program or is maybe outside of the scope of what we can do, we always like to leave callers with at least a resource or two that they can they can connect with that might be more suitable for them.”
The PACT team is currently comprised of a program coordinator, as well as two mental health workers and two peer support workers who are paired up to respond to calls.
“We only have that one team. As soon as we're on a call, that's where we'll be,” Sto Tomas said. “And if folks continue to call while we're at the crisis call, we would just answer and triage and hopefully try to get to the next person in a timely matter. But it's just a small team of us so far.”
In November, the provincial government announced the Safer Communities Action Plan, which includes a number of enforcement and intervention services (like PACT) aimed at making communities safer. Part of that plan includes expanding mental-health crisis response teams into more communities so police can focus on crime, and people in crisis are met early on by health-care workers and community members.
"We know when a person is experiencing a mental-health or substance use crisis, what they need and want, is the support from someone who knows what they are going through,” Jonny Morris, CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s B.C. division, said in a news release. “That is the heart of the Peer Assisted Care Team (PACT) model. We are very excited to lead this transformation of crisis care with partners in British Columbia. Today marks a bold commitment by this government to support mental health for all. A community-led care response, informed by people with lived and living experience, operated by local organizations is part of the transformation we need."
The City of New Westminster worked in collaboration with the Canadian Mental Health Association, as well as the City of Victoria, the City of North Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver, to develop a pilot project in New West. How will the province’s announcement, which came after plans for a PACT program in New West were well underway, impact the local program?
“What it means is that this is a pilot, but we will get funding to continue moving forward past the pilot stage, which is really exciting,” Sto Tomas said. “I know that this is something that the community was really looking for and is a service that folks have stated that they needed, so it's good to know that will continue to be supported.”
The Lower Mainland Purpose Society was selected as the operator of the local program, and the PACT mobile team is based out of the society’s office in downtown New West.
“We hope that PACT is a service that folks feel comfortable to use, and we're really excited to go out there and be a support to the New West community,” Sto Tomas said. “We’re really excited to launch. The team is ready to go.”
Follow Theresa McManus on Twitter @TheresaMcManus
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