Latest news with #crisisintervention
CBC
07-08-2025
- Health
- CBC
Hospital boosts number of social workers responding to 911 calls with Essex County OPP
Social Sharing People experiencing mental health crises in areas of Essex County served by the OPP are now more likely to see a social worker — not just a police officer — when they call 911. Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH) says it has increased the number of social workers who can respond to 911 calls with police from one to three. The specialty hospital, which focuses on mental health care, previously had two social workers assigned to its Mental Health Response Units, said Kevin Matte, the director of outpatient mental health services at HDGH. Those units paired social workers with OPP officers, but they didn't respond to live calls, he said. Instead, they mostly handled referrals. Now all three of those officer-social worker pairings will be part of the new Essex County Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team, which responds to 911 calls. "Policing departments are seeing more 911 calls for mental health issues," Matte said. "So it's important for us to be able to kind of react to that and be able to support that increased call volume and allow us to have more availability of crisis workers on the road." The hospital has implemented a similar change to its partnership with the Windsor Police Service and almost doubled its volume, he said. But comparing Windsor to communities served by the OPP, such as Kingsville and Tecumseh, "isn't apples to apples." The change isn't just about increasing the volume of patients social workers see, he said. "It's targeted more to be person-centred because … if there's a call in Kingsville and a call in Tecumseh at the same time, it allows clinicians to attend both locations simultaneously, and it brings …. the care to people when they need it." HDGH has been partnering with the OPP for more than five years now, Matte said, and they've learned that it's important to be flexible to make services as accessible as possible.
South China Morning Post
26-07-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
For war-ravaged youth, education is an anchor amid chaos, not a luxury
Education systems adapted to local conditions are strategic, long-term investments in community resilience. It must be treated as a frontline intervention in a crisis Most global actors still treat education as an afterthought during crises, something to address only once food, water and shelter are secured. But in places like Palestine, Syria and Afghanistan, this hierarchy collapses. Education isn't a post-crisis luxury; it's the anchor in the chaos. Over the past decade, I've learned that education must be treated as a frontline intervention, restoring not only learning, but also safety, identity and hope. It's not just about classrooms. It's about systems that endure. This requires a different mindset, prioritising community-led design over one-size-fits-all frameworks, embedding psychosocial support structurally, trusting youth with leadership and planning for local ownership from the start. Education isn't what follows survival; it's how people survive. We don't need more tool kits, we need a mindset shift. Global actors must listen more, prescribe less and embrace complexity over metrics. Only then can we build education systems that endure when everything else collapses. In 2015, a few months after a war in Gaza, I entered a shelter that had been a bustling school. A boy, no older than 10, asked: 'When will the school come back?' I didn't have an answer. Since then, I've worked across some of the world's hardest-hit areas, in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan. These experiences challenged many assumptions that still shape global education policy. In the years that followed, we began to understand that restoring education in crisis zones wasn't only about reopening schools, it was also about building adaptable systems. Our work began to evolve beyond emergency. We developed scholarship programmes for marginalised and refugee youth, not as charity but as strategic, long-term investments in community resilience. 'I'm as old as the revolution', Syrian boy turns 10 as nation marks decade of civil war In Syria and Lebanon, prolonged displacement rendered traditional education models ineffective. For some, the urgent need was a quick entry into the labour market; for others, the dream of academic excellence still burned bright. What they needed were parallel, flexible pathways. Newsletter Daily Opinion By submitting, you consent to receiving marketing emails from SCMP. If you don't want these, tick here {{message}} Thanks for signing up for our newsletter! Please check your email to confirm your subscription. Follow us on Facebook to get our latest news. The thoughtful response was to design modular options: short-term, market-aligned diplomas that allowed learners to pause and resume, alongside full bachelor's degree opportunities through partnerships with institutions such as the American University of Beirut. Optionality, not rigidity, became a lifeline, ensuring dignity, adaptability and access to opportunity. In Afghanistan, the Taliban's 2021 return triggered the collapse of the education system, particularly for girls and women. This prompted a dual strategy. The Afghan Thrive initiative aimed to offer globally recognised online learning for women barred from classrooms. Meanwhile, the Qatar Scholarship for Afghans Project (QSAP) mobilised over 60 US universities and international stakeholders to provide scholarships and safe relocation pathways for hundreds of Afghan youth. These weren't temporary fixes. They were structural interventions designed for continuity, portability and resilience because in fragile settings, sustaining education is also about sustaining identity. But access to learning means little without addressing trauma. In Gaza, therapy rooms were introduced into public schools for the first time, central case units were developed to handle high-risk mental health interventions, and school counsellors were embedded in long-term mentorship programmes. Twinning partnerships were created with international institutions to help universities establish degree tracks in psychosocial support, and a national digital case management platform was developed to link services, ministries and NGOs. How 2 years of Taliban rule have transformed Afghanistan back to the past Still, some of the most profound healing didn't happen in counselling sessions. Many young people described dignity and income as the greatest sources of resilience. With local job markets saturated, digital freelancing became a powerful outlet. Training in globally in-demand skills allowed young people to work remotely, earn income and reclaim a sense of agency. These were not symbolic efforts. They were deliberate investments in psychological, economic and social recovery. This was never clearer than after the most recent Gaza war broke out in 2023. As institutions collapsed, young people didn't wait for aid agencies. They created informal schools in shelters, distributed hygiene kits, ran mental health activities for children and cooked meals for their communities. Many were our students and graduates from the scholarship programmes before the war. We didn't script this response. They did. We simply gave them the small grants and logistical support they needed. They are not beneficiaries. They are infrastructure. And in the absence of functioning systems, they are often the only infrastructure left. What this reveals is a fundamental flaw in how the world still approaches education in emergencies. It's not that youth lack initiative; it's that systems too often fail to recognise or support them. This ties into a deeper misconception that education can wait, that first comes food and shelter. But in conflict settings, education is often the thread holding everything else together. That boy in Gaza is likely a man now. I still don't know when schools will reopen in the strip. But I know this: if we listen more and design smarter, we may help youth believe learning is worth holding onto, even in the ruins.
CBC
08-07-2025
- Health
- CBC
Wait for help during mental health emergency too long: outreach group
A Winnipeg volunteer outreach group says police and paramedics need to reconsider how they deal with mental health emergencies, after they say a woman in the midst of a crisis waited hours for medical attention.
CTV News
25-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Winnipeg lacks staffing, resources to deal with hoarding: report
The City of Winnipeg lacks the staffing and resources to deal with the problem of hoarding, finds a new report. According to the city document, Winnipeg has been working to address hoarding for more than three years. This involved the creation of a task force and a triage group, which include representation from Winnipeg police, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS). Through these initiatives, the task force worked to manage hoarding cases and referred those in need to the proper resources, particularly to community crisis workers. However, the report noted, community crisis workers can no longer help with this project due to other work commitments, which has led to a major dip in the number of cases the city is handling. 'As a result, promotion of the hoarding referral service and interactions with referrals has been at a minimum until new resources can be identified,' the report said. 'There are still no resources available with the appropriate skillset to meet and work with referred individuals.' Hoarding, as characterized by the American Psychiatric Association, is the persistent difficulty of getting rid of possessions due to a perceived need to save them. The report notes the behaviour is linked to 'complex' mental health concerns that often require intensive support. 'These supports do not exist currently within the city,' the report stated. 'Further, as identified through the work of the Taskforce and the Triage Group, needed services are also limited in community or have significant wait times.' The report will be discussed at a meeting of the standing policy committee on community services on July 2.
Associated Press
18-06-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Trump administration removing 988 hotline service tailored to LGBTQ+ youth in July
The 988 National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline will stop providing tailored support options to LGBTQ+ youth and young adults on July 17, according to a statement on a federal agency's website. The decision preempts the Trump administration's 2026 budget proposal to cut funding for 988's LGBTQ+ youth and young adult services, and is raising alarm bells among LGBTQ+ advocates. Federal data shows the LGBTQ+ youth program has served nearly 1.3 million callers since it started in September 2022. The services were accessible under the 'Press 3' option on the phone to by replying 'PRIDE' via text. ___ EDITOR'S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. ___ The decision was was made to 'no longer silo' the services and 'to focus on serving all help seekers, including those previously served through the Press 3 option,' the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) said in a statement dated Tuesday on its website. News of the LGBTQ+ service shutting down comes as the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors on Wednesday. The Trevor Project said it received official notice Tuesday that the program was ending. The nonprofit is one of seven centers that provides 988 crisis support services for LGBTQ+ people — and serves nearly half of the people who contact the lifeline. ' Suicide prevention is about people, not politics,' Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black said in a statement Wednesday. 'The administration's decision to remove a bipartisan, evidence-based service that has effectively supported a high-risk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible.' In its statement on the 988 decision, SAMHSA referred to the 'LGB+ youth services.' Black called the omission of the 'T' representing transgender people 'callous.' 'Transgender people can never, and will never, be erased,' he said. The Trevor Project will continue to run its 24/7 mental health support services, as will other organizations, and leaders of 988 say the hotline will serve anyone who calls with compassion. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were 49,300 suicides in 2023 — about the highest level in the nation's history, based on preliminary data. Studies have shown that LGBTQ+ youth are at higher risk of suicide, including a 2024 analysis by the CDC that found 26% transgender and gender-questioning students attempted suicide in the past year. That's compared with 5% of cisgender male and 11% of cisgender female students. Young transgender people flooded crisis hotlines with calls after President Donald Trump was re-elected. Trump made anti-transgender themes central to his campaign and has since rolled back many civil rights protections and access to gender-affirming care. Trump signed the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020 into law in October 2020. The specific 988 subprogram for LGBTQ+ youth cost $33 million in fiscal year 2024, according to SAMHSA, and as of June 2025, more than $33 million has been spent on the services. The Trump administration's 2026 budget proposal called for keeping 988's total budget at $520 million even while eliminating the LGBTQ+ services. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to wrap SAMHSA and other agencies into a new HHS office called Administration for a Healthy America, where it would coexist with employees from other agencies responsible for chemical exposures and work-related injuries. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
