Four Pathway - New Crisis Community Response Model
A practical, compassionate approach to mental health crises in our community.
Integrate into the "Fourth Pathway" Emergency Services Model
Empower Existing Neighborhood Outreach Groups
Fund Local Community-Led Outreach Teams
The Strategy:
Advocate for the immediate adoption of the newly proposed Winnipeg Community Crisis Response Model. This independent report recommends establishing a "fourth pathway" alongside police, fire, and paramedics.
The Strategy:
Rather than building a costly, entirely new municipal department from scratch, the city must leverage and fund the community agencies already trusted on our streets.
How it Works:
Non-violent, medically stable emergency calls would be diverted to a centralized Community Crisis Dispatch and Coordination Hub. The hub would dispatch dedicated, mobile civilian teams instead of sending flashing lights and sirens. This is estimated to redirect over 10,000 calls a year away from emergency services.
How it Works:
Partner with community centers, libraries, and public transit hubs to embed peer-support specialists or provide direct, free communication channels to the Shared Health Crisis Response Centre. Making help physically visible in everyday neighborhood spaces removes the stigma and reaches people early.
How it Works:
We can expand the capacity of groups like the Downtown Community Safety Partnership (DCSP) and local Indigenous outreach organizations to act as regional mobile response arms. Because they already have relationships with vulnerable individuals, they can provide immediate de-escalation, navigation, and critical short-term follow-up care.
Administrative & Financial Precision: We don't need to double property taxes to fix this. By implementing a centralized Community Crisis Dispatch Hub, we can divert 10,000 non-violent calls, freeing up our police officers for core neighborhood patrols while getting individuals more appropriate, specialized care.
Addictions & Community Service Lens: True crisis management requires follow-up care. By funding existing grassroots outreach groups, we build long-term relationships that transition people from street-level crises into stable, accountable recovery programs.
The Strategy:
People in crisis shouldn't have to wait until a situation escalates to an emergency call to get help. We must create multiple, visible entry points for care across Winnipeg neighborhoods.
4 Tier crisis
framework
This model removes the police as default responders for mental health, addictions, and social crises, ensuring that police only deploy when there is a weapon or immediate physical danger.
Tier 1: High Severity/High Priority (Police/Paramedic Co--Response
Tier 2: Moderate-to-High Severity/Urgent Priority (Mobile Crisis Outreach)
Tier 3: Moderate Severity/Scheduled or Prompt Priority (Community Safety Outreach)
Definition:
Active, immediate threats to life, safety or public spaces involving weapons or sever violence.
Examples:
A person experiencing a severe psychotic episode brandishing a weapon on a transit bus; an active, life-threanting overdose in progress; an individual attempting immediate self-harm in a public park.
Action:
The caller line uses a "warm transfer" back to emergency services dispatch.
A co-response model is activated where police secure the scene, but specialized crisis clinicians handle the medical/psychiatric evaluation.
Definition: Individuals seeking help for chronic mental health issues, shelter navigation, non-acute withdrawal management, or loneliness, with zero safety risks.
Examples: A resident calling because they cannot cope with their anxiety and have run out of medication; someone seeking immediate info on how to access a detox bed; a family member looking for resources to handle a relative's escalating substance use.
Action: Handled entirely over the phone or text by trained peer-support workers or resource navigators. They provide immediate de-escalation, safety planning, and direct booking into local resources like the Chalmers Counselling program.
Definition:
Severe psychiatric or emotional distress where the individual is a risk to themselves or vulnerable, but no weapons are present and there is no active violence.
Examples:
A resident in Elmwood experiencing intense paranoia or delusions on the street; a youth in severe emotional crisis refusing to leave a public facility; an individual expressing active suicidal ideation but holding no immediate means or weapons.
Action:
Dispatch a specialized, plain-clothes Mobile Crisis Team (clinician + peer-support worker) in an unmarked vehicle. Their goal is on-site stabilization and voluntary transport to a healthcare facility or crisis stabilization unit.
Tier 4: Low Severity/Routine Priority (Peer Support & Navigation)
How to build the intake protocol
Definition:
Substance-use distress, public intoxication, or non-violent behavioral disruptions that impact public spaces but do not pose an immediate medical emergency.
Examples:
An individual passed out safely on a sidewalk or park bench due to substance use, a person acting erratically due to intoxication in front of an Elmwood/Ek storefront; an unhoused individual in severe distress due to extreme weather.
Action:
Dispatch community-led outreach vans(such as expanded Main Street Project teams or dedicated Transit Safety Officers). These teams focus on harm-reduction, providing basic necessities, and transporting individuals to non-clinical stabilization spaces or shelters.
To safely divert these 10, 000+ calls, the intake workers on the new line must use an algorithmic screening process based on the three immediate questions:
1) Is anyone in immediate danger, or are they or are there any weapons involved? (If yes auto-route to Tier 1)
2) Is the person conscious, breathing normally, or requiring immediate medical attention?(if medical emergency -route to paramedics).
3)Is the individual cooperative, or are they experiencing a level of impairment where they cannot understand commands? (Determines whether to send to Tier 2 mobile Crisis or Tier 3 Community Outreach).
This would be the Newly proposed Alternative Response Citizens Advisory (ARCA) or the Winnipeg Police Board aligning its dispatch software.
By integrating the municipal dispatch system with this triage framework, thousands of welfare checks can be automatically re-routed to community health workers without ever hitting police radar.