The local candidates in the upcoming provincial election are sharing their thoughts on mental health and addiction issues.
Hotel-Dieu Grace Health Care and the local chapter of Canadian Mental Health Association hosted an all candidates debate last night.
A number of topics were discussed including increases to mental health funding, wait times for mental health, the opioid crisis and safe injection sites.
A packed house for an all-candidates debate dealing with mental health and addictions, May 24, 2018 (Photo by AM800's Rob Hindi)
Hotel-Dieu CEO Janice Kaffer says mental health is a local issue but it's also a provincial issue. "Mental health issues, mental illness, the need to really put some money into services is a key issue across the province," says Kaffer. "So locally we want to find out what are the parties going to do locally to make sure Windsor-Essex gets the funding we need to advance care and build some services we need here."
CMHA CEO Claudia den Boer says the area needs more funding to deal with mental health. "We really want to see that those dollars translate into commitments here in Windsor-Essex for our community because the needs are great," says den Boer.
All of the candidates were on hand except Essex PC candidate Chris Lewis and the Green Party's Henry Oulevey.
Lewis and Oulevey also missed Tuesday night's debate which focused on health care.