Crisis diversion teams, 211 get funding boost amidst growing demand

A plan to divert police away from situations better handled by social workers has become so popular that the agencies operating a local crisis diversion service are working over capacity.
Calls to 211 — a public hotline that sees social agencies dispatch workers in outreach vans to help people who are in distress — have swelled since the program’s inception in 2015, pushing teams to respond to about 26 per cent more calls per month than they have the resources for. 
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