Photo: Halton Police
There’s a new partnership between the Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) and Halton Healthcare.
Together, they’re launching a new Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team (MCRRT) pilot program aimed at improving care for individuals experiencing mental health crises across the region. The initiative pairs a specially trained police officer with a healthcare professional to respond jointly to mental health-related calls.
The goal of the MCRRT is to ensure safe, compassionate, and timely support, offering de-escalation and connecting individuals to appropriate community services whenever possible – only resorting to hospital visits when absolutely necessary. This approach aims to reduce pressure on emergency rooms, the justice system, and frontline officers, while improving long-term outcomes for individuals in crisis.
The new partnership builds on a successful existing collaboration between HRPS and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, which handled over 1,700 crisis calls between January 2024 and March 2025. The addition of Halton Healthcare is expected to absorb an additional 10% of crisis-related service calls annually.
“Every day, our officers see the tremendous amount of distress experienced by people who are in crisis”, says Kevin Maher, Deputy Chief of Halton Regional Police Service. “Though we are always ready to respond, we know that healthcare professionals and other community services are better equipped to provide individuals with the more robust support they may need. Over time, our Service’s hope is that the MCRRT programs will lead to a reduction in the number of people who are repeatedly experiencing a mental health crisis because they will have received the correct care that empowers them to lead healthier and happier lives; and in turn, our frontline officers will be in a better position to focus on other emergency calls. This fantastic new partnership with Halton Healthcare is a win for everyone, and will only strengthen our joint efforts to support people in crisis, and provide exceptional community service to all Halton residents.”
For more information, visit either hrps.on.ca or haltonhealthcare.com.
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