New mental health and addictions centre to open in 2025, says Furey

Premier Andrew Furey says the construction of the new adult mental health and addictions centre in St. John's is on target, and should be open by the spring of 2025.

The facility will introduce 102 new care beds into the health-care system, along with a new 60-bed hostel to replace the Agnes Cowan hostel. The 240,000-square-foot facility will replace the Waterford Hospital, which opened in 1855, as the province's primary mental health care hospital.

"We know it is long overdue, and it will meet the demands of our changing province for generations to come," Furey said Thursday.

"Mental health care is health care, and both are absolutely key to our well-being as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians."

On Thursday, reporters got a look inside the new facility, which Furey said should be built by the end of 2024. Furey thanked former Premier Dwight Ball during the event for his commitment to furthering mental health care in the province, as a new hospital was a top priority of his all-party committee in 2017.

The government's choice of location — on a flood plain by the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's — has been criticized.

Mental health advocate Jeff Bourne said although the facility was originally anticipated to open next year, it's important that extra time is taken to ensure things are done properly.

"We need to do it right, and now's the time that we're going to do it. And I'm just happy that that old building is going to be replaced," said Bourne, chair of the province's recovery council for mental health and addictions, and the executive director of U-Turn, an addiction centre in Carbonear.

Bourne said he's excited to see a shift toward person-centred care at the new facility, rather than a traditional approach which he said doesn't work for everyone.

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