More than 600-people packed the Ciociaro Club Friday in the name of mental health Friday night.
The Big Night Gala raised money for Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and the Changing Lives Together Foundation. All proceeds from the event go towards funding programs and breaking the stigma around mental health in Windsor-Essex.
Dr. Andrea Steen tells AM800's Patty Handysides mental health is something everyone has had touch their lives.
"I don't think anybody in this city could be untouched by mental health, we all have it in our families, in our colleagues, our friends — it's there with everyone," she says. "I think as a community we have to take care of each other."
Steen tells The Afternoon News host government funding, that continues to get cut, doesn't cover programs that help people outside of the hospital.
"There's so many places that we have needs for these patients, just to help for transportation for our more severely mentally-ill patients, all that stuff is going to help," she says. "They really need different programs in so many areas that we can't rely just on the government."
Downtown Windsor's Transitional Stability Centre is one of those programs, added Steen.
"Access where people can just walk in the door and there are crisis workers, groups, and just people to greet you and meet you to bring you in," she says.
"Even if it's just to have a chat with you to get that relationship started with the patients walking in right off the street, trying to meet people where they are at."
The event raised more than $100,000 for mental health programs throughout Windsor-Essex.
— with files from AM800's Patty Handysides.