The County of Essex will be looking for more support for mental health resources across all municipalities.
During the County council meeting on Wednesday evening, an item was brought forward regarding a letter from the Kingsville Police Service Board stressing the need for more mental health resources and support in the municipality.
Kingsville mayor Dennis Rogers stated during the meeting that Ontario Provincial Police, the police that monitors most of the county, are seeing a heavy increase in mental health calls.
Many of the other mayors and deputy mayors of surrounding municipalities stated that they have also seen an increase in their respective town's and would like for a letter to be sent to local MPP's, Premier Doug Ford, the Minister of Health, the Western Ontario Wardens Caucus, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, asking for assistance.
Rogers says those in Essex County need their own space.
"And the unfortunate part is for the full resources where police are bringing them into Windsor, Hotel-Dieu which is a great resource which we appreciate, it would pre-emptive that we just need some more support for facilities and resources for the residents of Essex County to actually have their own place to go."
He says at this point the County of Essex has the same number of people as Windsor does.
"We need to start moving in a direction for us to be self-sufficient on things like mental health, and social services, and housing, you name it, and not to continue to have to rely on the City of Windsor. For us again, it's not fair for the size that we're at now for our residents to have to drive to Windsor for these resources."
Rogers says this issue is impacting all municipalities.
"Mental health is something coming out of the pandemic there's a spike across the board. It's not just us specific. The county council and the county councillors have come together saying 'hey, this is happening in all of our municipalities'. So, the letter we're writing is for the County of Essex as a whole."
The report was approved to send the letter.
Rogers adds that he will be bringing up this item again when the county furthers their development for their first-ever Strategic Plan.