New mental health and addictions emergency care space to be built at Thunder Bay, Ont., hospital
Goal is to divert patients from emergency department to more private care setting
A new space is being built at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) for patients needing emergency mental health and addictions care.
The aim of the area is to divert patients from the emergency department into a more private setting for treatment.
Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones was in Thunder Bay on Monday to announce the project.
"Our government's investment will create a new space designed to provide care in a safe and private setting for parents and their families, with improved space for nursing and physician assessments, enhanced programming and care plan development that puts people at the centre, and direct access from the emergency department triage," Jones said.
The government has not specified how much it is spending on the project, only that it is part of its nearly $400-million investment over three years on mental health and addictions services.
The project is in the early planning and design stage, with no timeline for construction or tentative completion.
"A construction schedule will be confirmed once future planning is complete and the project is tendered and awarded," the Ontario government said in a statement Monday.
Reducing stigma, health-care inequities
The TBRHSC is the only Schedule 1 facility in the district for mental health services, which means it is the only area hospital that can admit patients involuntarily, as per Ontario's Mental Health Act.
"At times, we've been very strained to provide the level of care that we expect from this organization and that patients deserve," said Kyle Lansdell, chief of emergency and trauma services at the TBRHSC.
"Having a dedicated area is going to be vital for patients to be able to have an area where they're comfortable, where they're not stigmatized, and where they're being able to be provided safe and confidential care."
It also gives staff members a space where they can safely observe patients and have improved interactions, he added.
Thunder Bay is a health-care hub for several surrounding communities and dozens of First Nations.
Hospital president/CEO Rhonda Crocker Ellacott said the impact of having the new space and observation area will be felt throughout the region.
"With the steady rise of mental health and substance use visits at our hospital, we are in a unique position, and it provides significant health-care challenges that are systemic in nature," Crocker Ellacott said.
"This investment is vital to reduce health-care inequities across northwestern Ontario and enhance both clinical care and service excellence for the patients that we serve."
HART Hub applications under review: minister
Thunder Bay continues to have one of the highest opioid-related death rates in the province, at a rate of 59.6 per 100,000 population in the first half of 2024.
The city's only supervised consumption site (SCS), Path 525, is slated to close at the end of March, due to the province's new rules about the sites' proximity to schools and child-care settings.
Instead, the province says it's spending $378 million on 19 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs. These spaces won't allow supervised drug consumption, safer supply or needle exchange programs — all of which are offered at Path 525.
Path 525 is operated by NorWest Community Health Centres (NWCHC). In an email to CBC News earlier this month, CEO Juanita Lawson said the organization has submitted a HART Hub application, also known as a consumption and treatment services (CTS) business transition plan.
When asked about the application's status, Jones said the province has received HART Hub applications from across Ontario.
"We have those applications in the ministry now, we are reviewing them and we expect to be able to make those announcements very early in the new year," she said during Monday's news conference.
Jones was also questioned about where harm reduction fits into the province's overall addictions strategy, but did not provide a direct answer.
"We have to give people hope. We have to give people more than just enabling the illegal drug use," she said. "We've worked very hard as a government, whether it is with our policing and justice partners and of course, in our health-care system, to make sure that we offer pathways out.
"The way to give people hope is to actually offer them alternatives, and that's what we're doing with our HART Hub model and the investments we're making in mental health and addictions."