About three per cent of all paramedic response calls in Sarnia-Lambton are for people with no fixed address, says the manager with Lambton EMS.
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Yet “those known to be homeless in Lambton County account for 0.2 per cent of Lambton’s population,” said Stephen Turner.
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Hopes are a new program announced Wednesday helps reduce the frequency of those people end up in hospital, or in handcuffs, he said.
Turner and representatives with various community agencies — including Bluewater Health, the Sarnia-Lambton Ontario Health Team, and the local Canadian Mental Health Association branch, among others — gathered Wednesday outside the Lambton County administration building to announce a three-year pilot program pairing paramedics with substance-use navigators from Bluewater Health.
Community Health Integrated Care (CHIC) teams will visit people in encampments and shelters 12 hours a day — 10 am to 10 pm — seven days a week, making connections and building relationships, treating wounds, helping with harm reduction supplies, doing wellness checks, providing education, and referring people to community agencies and primary care when needed, instead of hospital waiting rooms, Turner said.
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Michael Tibollo, Ontario’s associate minister of mental health and addictions, was on hand Wednesday to announce $2.5 million for the program, noting it’s designed to alleviate pressures on hospital waiting rooms and on police.
“This team is going to be of tremendous benefit to the entire county and free up much needed resources,” he said.
A government news release notes similar programs are also launching in Thunder Bay and Simcoe County. Total investment is $8 million over three years and normal ambulance service, including dispatch, will be maintained, it says.
The program is different from mental-health focused teams, like the Mental Health Engagement Response Team that launched in Sarnia in 2019, that pair police officers with mental health workers, said Turner.
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“Our focus is going to be a bit more on the addictions and overdose space,” he said, noting key is building trust.
Teams won’t use ambulances, but nondescript vehicles, bikes, or approach on foot, and will be “dressed down a bit as well,” he said, since “sometimes the uniforms can put people off.”
With the program in its infancy, “we’re going to take our lead from the people we aim to serve,” he said, noting the plan is to make “compassionate connections.”
There will be two teams, and others to fill in as needed for vacations and in case of illness, he said.
Training starts Friday, and teams are expected to start their work in early June, he said.
Teams will also respond to lower-acuity 911 calls, he said.
“Higher acuity calls will probably continue to go to the emergency departments.”
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Lambton County council, amid concerns about homeless encampments like the one in Rainbow Park in Sarnia, passed a motion May 1 calling for the province to take the lead on the issue, as municipalities struggle to balance community concerns about safety with legal requirements not to dismantle encampments without “truly accessible” indoor shelter spaces.
Third-party legal advice provided to Sarnia city council said that doesn’t currently exist in the community.
Asked about the motion, Tibollo, noting he wasn’t familiar with the motion’s exact wording, said he’s focused on building a supportive system for mental health and addictions care in the province.
“To build that continuum of care,” he said.
Funding for programs like CHIC helps, as does funding for building supportive housing and for treatment programs, he said, but it takes time to identify and fill systemic gaps.
“We’re trying to build that capacity to look after people until we can get them the more permanent solutions like housing and the supports that they need,” he said.
Building system capacity and working with municipalities continues, he said.
“Unfortunately it just takes time.”
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