2-minute read

A working alternative to the Emergency Department or a phone hotline exists for mental health.

Identifying where to receive help should be easier.
The pathways to Recovery Colleges are not obvious and more of them need to be built.

For many of us who haven’t experienced a mental health crisis we may believe that the Emergency Department at a hospital is the best, or even the only, place for us to go when everything is too much. The reality is usually very different.

For overstretched hospitals, delivering resource-intensive services, the likelihood of admission is low if you are not considered at immediate risk of harm (emotional pain is not always viewed as harm).

Even at the best of times, sitting in an Emergency Department can be distressing. Imagine being young and struggling with your mental health. Emergency Departments are environments primarily designed to be sterile, efficient, and to facilitate high through-put of physical trauma or physical illness cases; not to be places of comfort, calm, and connection.

So, if not the ED, then where?

The alternative to visiting an Emergency Department

In England, the health service (NHS) is quickly scaling a community-based alternative to Emergency Departments for people in crisis.

From 5.30 pm to midnight, community spaces such as cafés, shopfronts and charity-run locations are repurposed to become welcoming, safe, friendly, and non-stigmatizing spaces. People in crisis are provided with support to share the nature of their issues, identify their triggers, and to help identify strengths and coping skills to reduce their distress in order to successfully manage their own situations in the future.

Peer Supporters, Recovery Workers and an on-call community Clinical Team, work in partnership to offer emotional support, resilience building, recreation and leisure activities, peer-led support, signposting to partner agencies, and opportunities for including complementary therapies.

People in crisis are given a safe space until the moment passes.

Is this happening in Canada?

While excellent community-based services in Canada are already helping to divert young people from Emergency Departments to more appropriate venues, knowledge of their existence is limited. The majority of people seeking help still believe medical options are the first, or the only, solution available. Additionally, healthcare providers are not necessarily aware of the resources that exist outside their sphere.  Identifying and aligning these community assets is critical in establishing clear alternatives to solely medical solutions and the pathways to access them.

Staff within Habitus Collective have played pivotal roles in the deployment and development of several Recovery Cafés in England, ensuring co-development is at the heart of the model. In Canada, together with our local and national partners, Habitus Collective is exploring the appetite for this innovation, the impact of waitlists/being turned away, and a specific look at the journey young people and families take when seeking critical support in several different localities.

Habitus Collective is uniquely placed to accelerate the implementation of this innovation

With deep experience in service delivery and evaluation, Habitus Collective can quickly mobilize knowledge and experience from both the UK and Canada, so that service providers can deliver what young people and their families need instead of facing a long wait at an Emergency Department with no guarantee of help.

Equally, we integrate best practices and innovations, as well as substantiate the benefits that a diversion away from a clinical setting can create. When healthcare providers see this evidence, they acknowledge the benefits community programmes produce for young people. This creates acceptance and then endorsement from healthcare providers.

To kick things off in February 2022, Habitus Collective will be presenting at Frayme Learning Institute 2022: Future State.

By the end of the year, we will have established a network of communities sites ready to deliver an option, like Recovery Cafés in England, for young people and their families living in Canada.

Habitus specialises in providing practical, engaging and lasting solutions for mental health.

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