Calgary Alliance for the Common Good applauds expansion by Alberta Health Services & the Calgary Police Service for MRTs and PACTs

Calgary, AB - After a well-fought campaign the Calgary Alliance for the Common Good is pleased to announce that the Calgary Police Service and AHS have agreed to expand the Police and Crisis Team (PACT) and Mobile Response Team (MRT). The expansion of the PACT and MRT teams means that when people are in a mental health crisis, instead of having just police officers showing up - the right people with the right training will be there.

Now that AHS and CPS are expanding when these teams are available it means that these mental health professionals will also be able to be there at the right time and place when people need them.

When our leaders first learned about the Mobile Response Teams and Police and Crisis Teams we literally had leaders in tears, tears of joy that such teams existed, but also tears of sorrow in how were not available when they had needed them: because they were not available when most mental health crises happen. The Calgary Alliance has been advocating for these changes as part of our advocacy on mental health for the last year.

QUOTE:

"When people are in a mental health crisis they need the right people, with the right training, showing up at the right time."

Katharine Heimbigner-Tenor, Co-Chair, Mental Health Research Action Team, Calgary Alliance for the Common Good

Media Contacts:

Katharine Heimbigner-Tenor, Co-Chair, Mental Health Research Action Team, Calgary Alliance for the Common Good
EMAIL: [email protected]

Ryan Andersen, Lead Organizer, Calgary Alliance for the Common Good
EMAIL: [email protected]
CELL: (403) 993-7123

About the Calgary Alliance for the Common Good:

The Calgary Alliance for the Common Good is a non-partisan, non-profit alliance of 31 community, labour, faith, education, ethnocultural, and non-profit groups representing 35,000 Calgarians. These organizations have come together to help shape a just and compassionate Calgary.

Learn more about us at https://www.calgarycommongood.org/about_us.