Building the Path to Home

Response strategies

Responding to crises

A crisis is any serious deterioration of a person's ability to cope with everyday life. Responses to crises include (from the least to the most amount of intervention):

• Ask someone (e.g., a family member or a support worker) who is familiar with the person to share thoughts about the potential risk.
• Talk with someone who knows more about the kind of risk the person faces. If it is behaviour-related, such as risk of an aggressive or suicidal act, you need to contact a mental health clinician. If the person doesn't have a regular clinical contact or setting, you'll need to connect with a clinician who can walk you through the options noted on the next page.
• Bring in another person (family member or worker) who knows the person so that you can observe the person, allow him or her some safe space to work through whatever is going on. You may have to make difficult decisions, so you will need support. You will also need help if you must take the person to be assessed.
• Call in a crisis service either through a mobile crisis support team or the Griffin Community Support Network.
• If there isn't any immediate danger of harm, call the community relations officer at your local police station. The officer can help you figure out your options and make a plan, but will not respond to emergencies.

Responding to emergencies

The information in the following pages is intended as an overview and should not be relied on as legal advice.

If you need detailed information about legislation, talk to a lawyer.

If, at any time, you are worried about the person's safety, your own safety or the safety of other people, get help.

If there is an immediate danger that the person will harm either himself or herself or someone else, call 911.

An emergency is a situation in which there is an immediate danger that the person will harm either himself or herself or someone else. Examples of emergencies include threats of suicide, threats of physical violence or extreme impaired judgement caused by problems such as psychosis or intoxication.

In an emergency:

• Take the person directly to an emergency assessment location. If the person agrees to go, you can probably get there faster than a crisis team can get to you. If you are driving, take someone else with you. Be prepared to wait in emergency with the person (see Guidelines for Managing the Client with Intellectual Disability in the Emergency Room).
• Call 911. The police, fire department and ambulance may all respond, depending on the time of day and circumstances. When emergency services respond, you no longer control the outcome. This can be frustrating if they do not understand the person and if they manage him or her in a way that may be more intrusive than is comfortable. If you talk to the community relations unit before a crisis occurs, the emergency response team will have some information about the person (e.g., what calms or comforts the person). See Crisis Planning and Management.

If the person does not want treatment

In Ontario, a person can be admitted to hospital against his or her wishes if the person:

• is a danger to himself or herself, or
• is a danger to others, or
• is at risk of serious deterioration of his or her physical condition due to a mental health problem.

People can also be admitted against their wishes if they have previously been diagnosed with a mental disorder, are incapable of consenting to treatment (in PDF format) and meet specific criteria that indicate that there is a risk to them or to someone else and that they are likely to benefit from treatment.

You can find more information about involuntary admission to hospital in:

• Rights and Responsibilities: Mental Health and the Law
• Challenges & Choices: Finding Mental Health Services in Ontario.

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