Let’s build mental health crisis response services that are by our communities, for our communities.
Every year, Toronto police respond to approximately
30,000 mental health crises.
What if mental health experts took those calls instead?
Reach Out Response Network is working to advocate for non-police-led crisis response teams that will revolutionize the way Torontonians support our most vulnerable. RORN’s supporters know they work, that there’s support (lots of it!), and that there needs to be an end to coercive, forceful, police-led crisis interventions.
We support anti-oppressive, trauma-informed models of crisis response that help empower individuals in crisis and ensure their dignity, autonomy, and self-determination.
Police should not be first responders to mental health crises.
Police are not mental health workers, no matter how much "de-escalation" training we give them. That's why Toronto needs a fourth emergency service, and specifically a civilian team made up of clinicians and peers from the communities they serve, who can be called to respond to individuals experiencing mental health crisis.
“There needs to be a shift in the way that we respond to mental health crises in this city…the time to act is now.”
Global News
— Rachel Bromberg
"You wonder why police are the middlemen between people in crisis and psychiatric help. Why are those who fight crime also responsible for intervening in mental health crises? Isn’t there an alternative?
There is.
Across the world, cities are building civilian teams of mental health experts to respond to people in crisis."
The Toronto Star
— Asante Haughton & Rachel Bromberg
What we are here for is to recognize that police already have so much on their plates, and they really shouldn’t be a jack-of-all-trades service.”
The Toronto Star
— Asante Haughton
Ready to take the next step?
This is a movement of billions. Whether you’re most comfortable contributing time to help achieve our advocacy goals, money to help us grow, or energy to put political pressure on our governments to change, we need you on our team.
