Winnipeg is launching a new program to help people experiencing mental health crises during specific hours of the day.

The City of Winnipeg says it is launching a new pilot project called Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis (ARCC). 

"In any given year almost 50 per cent of the calls for 911 are identified as non-urgent. Many of these calls do not require a paramedic, firefighter, or a police officer," Mayor Brian Bowman says. "Even though a 911 call might not meet the threshold of being an emergency, it is still a call for help."

bowmanWinnipeg's mayor is announcing the next phase in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. (Screenshot: City of Winnipeg/YouTube)

Bowman says mental health clinicians will be added to the list of people who can respond to a crisis. The City says this will create a specialized approach to a wide variety of calls. The City says last year saw an all-time high for wellness checks, with 18,991 wellbeing checks being conducted. This class type became the top resident-generated dispatch event in WPS history.

ARCC is only available Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

"Most presentations to the Crisis Response Centre occur weekdays in the late afternoon and evening," a spokesperson from Shared Health says in an email.

ARCC will be a team of two people, one Winnipeg Police Service officer in plainclothes and one crisis support worker from Shared Health. The two-person team will be called to the crisis location after uniformed WPS officers have already arrived at the 911 call, determining it to not be a threat for them.

"We want the officers to have the flexibility to recognize when it is required, when it may be appropriate, and even if it's not just to call ARCC in to have that consultation," WPS Inspector Chris Puhach says.

Erika Hunzinger, the Acting Director of Shared Health Crisis Response Services says people in positions such as social work, psychiatric nursing, and occupational therapy, will complete assessments, consulting with the Crisis Response Centre. 

"Encountering people in crisis can be really unpredictable," Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth. "Clinical intervention in the community should lead to better access to specialized services and support."

Smyth says this will lead to the prevention of "clogging up our emergency rooms" typing up police resources. Smyth says WPS funds have been freed up for this pilot, paying for the officers' and Shared Health crisis workers' salaries.

There is no date set for ARCC to launch, other than starting sometime next month.

This comes out of the City's pre-pandemic involvement with the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. EPIC 9 came out of the same Bloomberg Harvard process, first launched in 2019.