PACT model diverts mentally ill from courts

From the November 24th edition of the Halifax Daily News:

By Rachel Mendleson

If Nova Scotia is looking for a role model in psychiatric emergency response, perhaps it should consider Edmonton, Alta.

Since 2004, the city's mobile crisis teams have been equipped to respond to calls such as the one Karen Ellet placed when her common-law husband, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, assaulted her.

In addition to police and ambulance, one of four mobile teams, which consist of a uniformed officer and a mental-health professional, responds to psychiatric emergencies.

The Police And Crisis Team (PACT), keeps its own files on mental health patients, and has access to other databases, to ensure the history of the individual is known upon arriving on scene, says Tammy Dudas, regional manager of crisis and access services for Edmonton's mental health program. Being on scene allows the team to converse with the individual and help determine the appropriate course of action, she said.

She says so far, 100 per cent of the individuals PACT has brought to hospitals for acute care have been admitted.

The goal of the PACT program is to divert the mentally ill away from the criminal justice system, and toward health care, Dudas said.

But when charges are laid, PACT continues its relationship with the individual to present treatment options.