Homeless deaths to be tracked by Toronto in 2017

The number of deaths at the city of Toronto had been 247 between 2007 and Nov. 2016, CBC News reports said.

But these deaths occurred inside a city-funded shelter or immediately after leaving one, and does not provide a complete picture of the mortality rates in the city of Toronto, Toronto Public Health (TPH) spokesman Paul Fleiszer said in an email.

A News Release  on Councillor Paul Ainslie's website  titled “Accounting for Homeless Deaths Outside Our Shelters" said Toronto City Council adopted Ainslie's recommendation to start collecting data to count all the city's homeless dead for the purposes of producing real data…"If we don't know the real numbers, how can we make any real change?" stated Councillor Ainslie.

The  release said collecting real data helps in implementation of policies…as well as preparing preventative measures..."Recognizing the members of our community who live on the street and perish every year must be a priority otherwise we have a false account of the true circumstances facing those who live on the streets of Toronto" cited Councillor Ainslie and added, “Torontonians die in and outside of shelters every year, we must count all our homeless dead to address the issue head-on."

Fleiszer and the Ontario coroner's office are considering a tracking system that will get data from nearly 200 health and social service agencies supporting homeless people.

"This initiative will provide … solid evidence on which to base efforts to improve the health of this vulnerable population," wrote Fleiszer.

To start with, the program would collect data about the age, gender location and the cause of the death with the future endeavours on collecting more data, stated CBC News. 

"As part of the tracking system, Toronto Public Health has asked roughly 200 community partners, such as drop-in centres, churches, needle exchanges, Toronto police and hospitals, to submit data on deaths they are aware of. The data could include date and time of death, location and cause...", reported CTV Toronto.

This information could help TPH to improve treatment options for Toronto homeless people in hospital emergency rooms, improving primary care, housing policy as well as mental health treatment, said Lorie Steer, director of housing and homeless services at St. Stephen's Community House, which helps more than 20,000 of Toronto's most vulnerable people each year.

The information on the number of people dying helps many governing bodies in improving policies and legislation.

"If all these deaths are not counted, it becomes impossible to implement the required needs," reads the motion put forward by Councillor Ainslie.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj) 

Image: Wikipedia