Windsor's 'Situation Table' matches at risk people with services they need

Representatives from more than 30 local agencies have been meeting once a week for the last five months, finding ways to better support at-risk individuals in Windsor-Essex and get them help.

The "Situation Table" meetsto identify people in the community who are "at risk" and acute.

"These types of situation tables are becoming popular around the province," said police Chief Al Frederick."Now we can better assess that person's needs."

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Insp. Tammy Fryer has been a lead on the project and explained that the group works hard to protect people's privacy, while making sure they have access to the supports they need.

An individual has to be deemed at risk and acute by the agencies involvedat the table.

"High risk means there has to be more than one element of risk, more than one agency involved," she said.

When the table agrees that the person meets the criteria, the name is put forward to see which agencies might have already been involved in aiding that individual. From there, an action plan is coordinated and only those few agencies will continue to work on the case.

In the last five months, 30 situations have been presented to the group, according to Whitney Kitchen, a court support and release from custody worker at the Canadian Mental Health Association in Windsor.

Better sharing

Kitchen said the ability to share information while adhering to privacy allows community agencies to better assess someone who is at risk. She said the first day of situation table was eye opening to her, after one of her clients was identified as being more at risk than she though.

This is trying to solve problems from the root cause.- Al Frederick, police chief

"Ididn't have any idea of some of the risk factors going onbecauseinformation sharing is at the mercy of the clientsigningaconsent form," she said. "This gave us an avenue to work within the privacy framework but still assist people who were at sever risk."

Frederick said the ultimate goal of the initiative is to streamline services for those who need support, so that they can be stable and productive on their own.

"This is trying to solve problems from the root cause."