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Saskatoon crisis teams prevented hundreds from ending up in emergency rooms or jail cells

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Saskatoon’s Police and Crisis Team (PACT) units diverted 353 people from going to an emergency room last year, according to a Saskatoon Police Service report to the Board of Police Commissioners.

That's 27 per cent increase over 2020 and a three-fold increase since PACT began in 2015, the report said.

PACT also prevented 54 people from being arrested last year, up from 20 in 2015, reducing the number of people held in detention and the number entering the criminal justice system.

"The diversions are reducing costs and providing a needed service for people suffering from mental health and addiction in the community," the report said.

For example, every diverted emergency room visit saves the health system $800 and every diverted day in hospital saves $550, according to the report. A diverted stay in police detention for intoxication saves $450.

The teams, which consist of a police officer and a mental health social worker, provide immediate police response to persons in need that are experiencing significant mental illness and/or addiction issues.

Those calls include those related to attempted suicide, self-harm, welfare checks, mental illness and addictions.

Saskatoon Police Service has a PACT unit on three of its four shifts and hopes to have a team for the fourth shift in the future.

"With the increasing mental health and addiction calls, this would alleviate the pressure on our calls for service to patrol officers, divert arrests in our cells, divert individuals from the Emergency Departments and allow for the reduction of acutely elevated-risk situations," the report says.

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