A newly formed partnership is aimed at making the most of mental health promotion resources in Windsor-Essex.
The Windsor Essex County Health Unit and Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), Windsor Essex County Branch have formalized the link.
It follows a three phase review of what's being done currently by the 14 stakeholders, 51 community organizations and 131 programs already promoting mental health services.
Claudia den Boer is the CEO of CMHA and says the various services are already on the same page.
"There's really good collaboration, but maybe we could be coordinating our efforts a bit more effectively so that we aren't duplicating" says den Boer. "And it's an important area so that we can begin to bend the curve and we have less issues with treating mental illness."
The data gathering has been completed and developing the plan forward will take some time.
"Next we're going to bring people together to report back" explains den Boer. "We had a lot of commitment to participate in this project so we need to report back out and then I think we'll start to develop some goals and activities, so I think it's probably going to take us a year or so."
She adds there will be some difficult decisions to make over what works and what doesn't and measuring some key indicators.
Of the more than 130 programs they looked at, almost half were focused on individuals and about a quarter each on family and community levels.