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The Ontario government is providing grants to expand mobile crisis teams in the Peterborough region: $186,860.34 over two years for the Peterborough County OPP and $240,000 over two years for the Peterborough Police Service.
The OPP funding will extend mobile crisis coverage across the 4,000-square-kilometre detachment and establish a second officer–crisis worker pairing. Inspector Chris Galeazza, detachment commander of the Peterborough County OPP, says the support has allowed the detachment to expand its hours of service and more.
The Peterborough Police grant, in partnership with Peterborough Regional Health Centre, will create a third Mobile Crisis Intervention Team made up of a registered practical nurse and an officer. It will join two existing city teams that pair officers with nurses and mental health workers from the Canadian Mental Health Association Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge (CMHA-HKPR). Deputy Chief Jamie Hartnett says the community will benefit from the addition.
Both grants are part of the Mobile Crisis Response Team Enhancement Grant program, which will distribute $9 million to 36 police services in 2025-26 and 2026-27.
The expanded teams will provide immediate and follow-up supports, strengthen links to community services and aim to reduce emergency-department visits. Peterborough Police Service recorded 2,275 mental health and addictions calls from 2019–21 and 3,140 from 2022–24.
PTBOToday.ca also spoke with Calli Lorente, manager of integrated crisis services with CMHA-HKPR.
The Mobile Crisis Intervention Team model began in 2011 and was bolstered by municipal funding in 2021 and renewed in 2024.
(Written by: Noah Lorusso)
