Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare is looking for a nearly 8-million-dollar bump in funding from the province to support two new initiatives.
President and CEO Janice Kaffer says the request covers capital and some operational needs for the creation of a mental health emergency department as well as a behavioural care outreach team.
Kaffer says only about 30% of those with a mental health complaint are being seen at current emergency rooms in the province and feels a specific service is needed to address the matter.
She feels a specific emergency department would help.
"We think that that's something that's very much necessary given the increasing prevalence in volume of mental health clients going into the [emergency room]," says Kaffer,
The outreach team would partner with the Essex-Windsor EMS vulnerable patient navigators program and better move seniors with behavioural issues into long-term care homes.
President and CEO of Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare Janice Kaffer address the council for the County of Essex on February 15, 2017. (Photo by Ricardo Veneza)
Kaffer says the request was made on Tuesday. She feels it's time for Windsor-Essex to have the same level of service as elsewhere in the province.
"Frankly, other communities have it," says Kaffer. "London is developing something right now, downtown Toronto at CAMH they have this, in Montreal at the Douglas Institute they have this. We think that if we want to be a leader in mental health and addictions we should be stepping up and doing this."
Kaffer says Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare has 26 different programs for mental health and addictions.
Kaffer is hoping to implement the new initiatives as soon as possible as she says the community can't wait another seven to ten years for a new hospital to be built.