Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare is going to be aggressively chasing funding to set up a new centre focused on addictions and mental health.
President and CEO Janice Kaffer tells AM800 News, getting a commitment for the new assessment centre is a top priority this year.
Kaffer says pursuing the new centre is one piece of the overall healthcare plan for Windsor-Essex as part of a new state-of-the-art hospital being built.
She wants to see the proposed facility housed at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare.
"One of the key things for us, as an agency standalone, is that we're going to be starting to really move the conversation forward about an urgency assessment centre for mental health and addictions," says Kaffer. "That is a critical piece of creating an integrated and seamless service."
Kaffer stresses a new assessment centre would fundamentally change the care those with addictions and mental health issues receive. "Rather than having EHS transport individuals with clear mental health and addictions issues to the emergency department, they will be transporting them to a facility owned, operated and staffed clinically by mental health professionals."