OHA Introduces New Series Spotlighting Partnerships Aimed at Strengthening Mental Health and Addictions Care
COVID-19 has exposed gaps in access to mental health and addictions services in Ontario, especially with respect to the continuity of services during the pandemic. This has largely stemmed from the challenges introduced by COVID-19, such as isolation needs, access to testing, infection prevention and control (IPAC) demands, and availability of personal protective equipment. However, even before COVID-19 arrived, there was broad acknowledgement by government and system leaders that much more capacity was needed to meet the current and rising demand for these critical services.
This is why health system partners – hospitals and community organizations – have come together to address these gaps and develop innovative approaches to mental health and addictions service delivery. In this respect, COVID-19 had a silver lining. It helped accelerate existing partnerships, and at times, helped forge new ones that paved the way for creative solutions to service these gaps in care.
This mental health and addictions series was initiated by Addictions and Mental Health Ontario in partnership with the Ontario Hospital Association to profile a number of these successful collaborations that developed in response to the pandemic. They illustrate the value of partnerships in solving system issues and underscore the responsiveness, commitment and creativity of health care providers in meeting Ontarians' most pressing health care needs.
Author: LOFT Community Services
In early 2018, Richard (pictured above) became a new amputee and spent many months at a rehab centre re-learning how to walk with a prosthetic leg. Throughout his therapy, he worried about where he would live afterward —he had nowhere to go and was afraid he would end up homeless. A social worker suggested he move to Pine Villa.
Pine Villa is one of LOFT's transitional supportive housing sites - a partnership with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and SPRINT Seniors Care. It supports people coming out of hospitals who need special care due to their combination of physical health, mental health, addiction, and/or dementia challenges. Some of these clients were homeless before they entered a hospital and now welcome the opportunity to change their lives through community-based support programs.
The Pine Villa team supports gentle re-integration into the community by connecting people to affordable housing and the care they need. While the program is intended as a temporary housing solution, newcomers at Pine Villa feel very much at home.
The Pine Villa model showcases how different health care providers can work together to boldly lead the way for people who live with complex needs. Collaboration results in outcomes that benefit everyone.
When people have nowhere else to go, they endure extended hospitalization, leading to an adverse domino effect: shortages of available acute care beds precipitate hospital hallways lined with gurneys. Emergency departments back up; wait times become unacceptable. People lose their dignity and quality of life, while actual health outcomes get worse the longer they remain in hospital.
LOFT has been doing transitional work since 2009. It is a response to the gap in transitional care, a gap that leads our clients to fall through the cracks in the system: while some stay in the hospital for longer than needed, some leave the hospital and end up homeless. Over the years, collaborations and partnerships with other health care providers have refined this line of work.
The Pine Villa program works through a strengths-based model. Each health care provider offers services related to its expertise, which, when combined, attend to the needs of clients holistically. At Pine Villa, clients have access to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre's infrastructure, including primary care, nursing, IPAC support (which is critical during the COVID-19 pandemic), food services, cleaning services, etc. With all these supports in place, LOFT can do what it does best: work individually with clients and tailor the program to their needs. While both LOFT and SPRINT Seniors Care provide the transitional care that clients need to successfully reintegrate into society, LOFT focuses on clients with severe mental and physical health challenges and dementia.
After receiving support at Pine Villa, Richard transitioned to one of LOFT's Toronto Community Housing locations. Today he lives independently in his permanent home.
The health care industry can benefit from this type of approach by taking into consideration the needs of its clients in a holistic way. For a strengths-based model to work, all stakeholders involved in the partnership must recognize and respect the strengths of its partners, allowing them to focus on what they do best and to trust their own models and processes.