The new home for Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare's Mental Health and Addictions Urgent Crisis Centre is now open.
The centre opened on Monday at 1030 Ouellette Avenue.
It's adjacent to the Goyeau Street entrance of Windsor Regional Hospital’s Ouellette Campus Emergency Department and provides service to those are over the age of 16, who are experiencing a mental health or addictions crisis and cannot safely wait for community mental health and addiction support.
The service was previously being offered at 744 Ouellette Avenue.
As AM800 news reported earlier this month, HDGH announced it was relocating services from 744 Ouellette to 500 Ouellette and 1030 Ouellette.
Kevin Matte oversees crisis services and the Integrated Operations Manager between Hôtel-Dieu Grace and Canadian Mental Health Association.
He says the centre has its own entrance.
"Clients seeking our services would come directly to our service but we moved here to kind of make better alignment between us and the emergency department and be able to have clients come to one place and make sure they're in the right place no matter what," he says.
Matte says at the old location, the centre was seeing an average of eight people per day.
"I think there's been a lot of good teamwork between the two teams," says Matte. "The volumes are a little bit slow right now while people are learning that we're moving. We've seen eight or nine clients so far. So we're just settling in but it's been going well."
"We want people to be able to access services for mental health crisis in a timely manner and so I think if people know we're here, more people will have access to their care.," he says.
The centre is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Matte says the crisis phone lines also operate from the site.
He says the program runs 24 hours a day and receives about 8,000 to 12,000 per year.