Hello, I'm Jessica Samuels, and welcome to Forward Focus, our quick hit bite sized episodes that give you information and insights on the things you want to know. Co host CMHA Kelowna CEO Mike Gullick and I would like to acknowledge that this episode takes place on the ancestral, traditional and unseated lands of the Okanagan Silix people. Mike, today's forward focus is about Circle. Now, was previously known as PACT. So let's get into what is it and what does it do?
So Circle stands for Crisis Response Community Led, and it is a community based service that provides in person support for anyone over the age of 13 that is experiencing a mental health crisis. That could be related to emotional regulation issues. It could have something to do with substance use. The service comes to the individual, works to resolve that crisis, refers them to community resources, and then follows them after the fact. So there's an opportunity for them to get connected into services to ideally prevent that from happening again.
Okay, so and off the top there, I said that it was formerly known as PACT. Is the concept or the idea of those two things still the same or I guess why the name change?
Yeah. Well, I think part of the name change is because name PACT was getting confusing because there's been lots of PACTs all over the place. What Circle is, though, is a peer assisted care team, which is a practice that is used around the world. There's actually about 200 programs that are peer assisted care teams. Really, what it boils down to is that you have trained mental health professionals that have the skills in addressing crisis, but you also have people that have lived experience.
They've had their own mental health journey. They've navigated the system. So they have a special understanding of what that looks like, which generally can provide a more humane response, allow for a better connection to follow, and also in having lived that journey and navigated those systems, be better able to support people in what might be coming their way.
Okay. And so now that we're talking about circle and this honed in evolution of it, how widely is it used? Do we have them across communities? Do we have multiples in communities?
So there's currently six circles that are operating in British Columbia with a seventh to launch. They may be testing at this moment in Kamloops. The provincial government has committed to 12 circles across the province, including some run by Indigenous organizations.
Okay, so we can expect based on what we've seen, but not only from as being a mental health provider. Do you think we can expect to be seeing more of these in the communities?
What I would say is a mental health provider, I mean, the stories are in the news all the time. This is a humane approach to dealing with some of the crises that are taking place. Is it a needed service? Absolutely, 100%. Is it a needed service in Kelowna?
I would say yes. I would also say that our city has advocated strongly for this community to get a circle, including in the community safety plan where that was a specific action item. And I'm hopeful that Circle team will come to this community and be part of the community's response to dealing with people in mental health crisis.
Mike, thank you for that information. If you have questions about this topic or any other topic, you can always email us at awayforwardcmhacolona dot org. And you can also go to cmhacolona dot org if you want any information about any of our podcast topics. In the meantime, please take good care. Beam Credit Union supports mental health initiatives across British Columbia because caring for each other builds stronger, more connected communities.
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