Reach Out Response Network

We are excited to see momentum building all over the world, and especially here in #Toronto, on the push for alternatives to #police response to #mentalhealth #crisis. Rest up and then join us in 2021 in demanding a better approach to #community #safety.

There’s an understanding that what we’re doing now doesn’t work. We have reservations about a mental-health crisis being responded to by a person in a uniform with a gun. #mentalhealth #crisisresponse #police #Toronto https://www.theglobeandmail.com//article-toronto-victoria/

2020 was the deadliest year for #police shootings in the last 4. And a significant number of those shootings involved racialized people at the receiving end of a wellness check. "t's a cycle. Police are more likely to stop and question racialized people, who get frustrated with over-policing, so interactions with officers become increasingly hostile." #mentalhealth #toronto... https://www.cbc.ca//police-shootings-2020-yer-review-1.584

Our next town hall is on Tuesday. This time we want to hear from service providers who work with people with disabilities. Your experience and insights are important as we move forward in planning a non-police emergency mental health crisis service for Toronto.

The MHART team would consist of an EMS worker paired with someone from a partner agency who specializes in mental health and addictions to respond to those specific calls. #mentalhealth #substanceuse https://windsor.ctvnews.ca//essex-windsor-ems-to-test-a-me

Crisis intervention is the name of the game of policing in the 21st century...It eliminates the challenges police officers have had for so long and that is looking at doing jobs that are outside they’re traditional scope of work. What this does is provides specialization and allows experts to get in there and move forward and protect society. https://spectrumlocalnews.com//mental-health-and-police-re

"If somebody needs emergency medical care they're not met by police - they're met by health providers - I think it should be the same for mental health care". https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53239773

"Once borne to fruition, the hub will serve as a resource for people experiencing mental health or addiction crises 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and will serve as an alternative to hospital emergency departments." https://www.thestar.com//cmha-moves-forward-on-urgent-ment

We're now on Twitter! Follow us at https://twitter.com/reachout_to for updates on our partnership with the City of Toronto and upcoming events. Please share! #StrongerTogether

The Reach Out Response Network stands in solidarity with those who are mourning Abdirahman Abdi and with those who are raging at the acquittal of Daniel Montsion on all charges, including manslaughter, aggravated assault and assault with a deadly weapon. Abdirahman Abdi was a 37 year old Black Somali-Canadian man who was part of a tight knit community in Ottawa and had a history of mental health concerns. Abdirahman Abdi was violently beaten to death during a police check. ... This is a gap in the system. This is a catastrophic amount of damage to a family and to a community.This is an interaction that could have gone very very differently. Reach Out Response Network stands with the many other organizations and coalitions seeking to create a form of community intervention that does not threaten the lives of Black, mentally ill and/or disabled people. There are complex and painful and difficult conversations to be had around mental health, around psychosis, around racism and around accountability and around Anti-Blackness. We are committed to having those conversations with you. Abdirahman Abdi should be alive today. His killer should be held accountable. The Reach Out Response Network takes an unequivocal stance against police violence. We stand with those working to dismantle systemic racism and oppression and we stand with Black communities today and every day. Black Lives Matter. Black Mental Health Matters.

The team would replace L.A.P.D. officers in circumstances that would not require the use of either non-lethal or lethal weapons by officers. Those calls could include #mentalhealth, #substance abuse, #suicide threats, behavioral distress, conflict resolution and welfare checks. Police reform and re-imagining of mental health crisis response is gaining momentum! Let’s make this happen for #Toronto!... https://t.co/llqVW56P93?amp=1

The Reach Out Response Network wants to hear from Autistic and neurodivergent folks in Toronto! Sign up for a virtual interview to help us build a new crisis service and share your thoughts on what the service should look like. You'll receive a $20 e-gift card! Sign up here: https://docs.google.com//1kzEGM1wr4LSRyFxQ8wjLe2ShMddUtIIR

"Angela Davis’s terms, abolition is not primarily about dismantling, getting rid of, but it’s about re-envisioning. It’s about building anew." Reach Out Response Network exists independently from proposals to "defund" the police, or reduce the police budget. Our project, a non-police mental health response team, is necessary and will exist regardless of if funding will come from a police budget, or other sources. However these conversations are timely and relevant to the c...all for reducing police involvement in mental health crisis situations. This article explains the need for adequate funding for revolutionary and innovative projects, through the lens of the failures of de-institutionalization in 60s. "Today there are an estimated 100,000-plus homeless people with serious psychiatric disabilities. Though the roots are structural insufficient investment in public housing, constrained housing supply, and inadequate wages or benefits the individuals take the blame. Similarly, the jailing of people with psychiatric disabilities is often attributed to deinstitutionalization itself, rather than the broken community system or inappropriate policing practices." https://lareviewofbooks.org//how-defunding-abusive-instit/