Don’t Just Tell Us How Many Calls You Divert. Tell Us What Happened to the People.

For the past several weeks, we have been asking whether Canada is sending the right responder to the right call. Windsor offers a useful example of what happens when that question is put into practice. It also shows why the number of calls handled is only the beginning of the story.

According to a September 30 report, Windsor’s Nurse Police Team and Crisis Response Team responded to more than 4,300 calls in 2026, including 1,896 downtown. The report cites 275 referrals for mental-health services, 485 people treated on scene without an emergency-department visit, 191 naloxone kits used and 251 fentanyl test strips distributed.

Those figures represent real work. A person receiving timely care without an unnecessary hospital trip can benefit, and an emergency department may have more capacity for someone else. But a referral is not the same as treatment, and a diverted visit is not proof that a person’s needs have been resolved.

Police haven’t been removed from the model

Windsor’s approach is a partnership. Its Nurse Police Team pairs officers with nurses from Windsor Regional Hospital. The Crisis Response Team pairs officers with trained social workers from Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare. Clinical expertise comes to the scene alongside the officer’s safety responsibilities and legal authority.

Some crises require police. Others need a different response. And some require both. The objective should be to make that decision well, with appropriate triage, a clear escalation pathway and a way to connect the person to continuing care.

Qualifications and supervision matter

It is reasonable to ask who assesses risk, which professional qualifications are required, what training the officers receive, and who supervises clinical decisions. We should know how a call is assigned to a team, when a medical response is required and how an unsafe situation is escalated.

These are safeguards, not objections to innovation. A model that combines professional disciplines should make each person’s role, authority and accountability clear. The public deserves that clarity, and so do the people doing the work.

Windsor has been measuring this for years

The Nurse Police Team began in May 2023. In an April 2025 update, Windsor Police reported 3,118 calls since the start of 2024, 891 emergency-department diversions and 605 connections to community resources. It also reported a greater than 30 per cent improvement in priority-one response times since the program launched, and a 25 per cent decrease in frequent emergency-department users over an eight-month period.

These are promising reported indicators. They should not be read as proof that the teams alone caused every change. We need consistent definitions, a baseline, independent evaluation and follow-up that shows whether people received and remained connected to care.

This is where the national conversation needs to go

How many people experienced a repeat crisis within 30, 60 or 90 days? How many accepted a referral and actually reached treatment? How many returned to an emergency department? Were people and families safer and more satisfied with the response? Did police, paramedic and emergency-department workloads change? Were there adverse events or calls that required a different response?

Report the answers in a way that protects privacy and allows the public to see progress over time. If a program is working, that evidence will make the case for strengthening it. If people are still cycling through crisis, the data should tell us where the handoff failed.

A lesson for Winnipeg — and the rest of Canada

Winnipeg’s proposed community crisis-response model identified approximately 3,855 police calls and 6,356 fire-paramedic calls each year that may be suitable for a community response. Those are calls recorded by two services; the public should be told whether overlapping attendance has been reconciled before the figures are described as unique incidents.

Winnipeg has since advanced its model. Its success should be judged by more than how many calls move away from emergency services. The same question applies there as in Windsor: what happened to the person after the response changed?

Beyond Resilience Canada’s position

I support bringing qualified clinical and community expertise into crisis response. Done well, that can improve care while reducing repeated, avoidable exposure for police and other first responders. But we should resist the temptation to call a transfer of responsibility an outcome.

Count the calls. Then follow the care. Measure repeat contacts, treatment engagement, emergency-department returns, safety and the experience of the people involved. Publish what worked and what did not.

Don’t just show us the diversion. Show us the outcomes.