Photo caption: Jennifer Holmes Weier, CEO of Addictions and Mental Health Ontario.
Across Ontario, the need for high-quality, accessible mental health, substance use health and addictions (MHA) care has never been greater. As more people reach out for support, there is a clear opportunity to build a stronger, more connected system with MHA services that are stable, well-resourced, and ready to meet people where they are, in their communities and at every stage of the care journey.
This is where Addictions and Mental Health Ontario (AMHO) plays a critical role. Guided by a vision of building the best mental health and addictions system in Ontario, one that truly supports people when they need it, AMHO is helping drive change and advance practical, evidence-informed solutions so people can get the care they need.
As the province's leading voice for community-based mental health, substance use health, and addictions services, representing more than 150 organizations across the continuum of care, AMHO is working to build a more connected, high-performing system through policy leadership, advocacy, and system transformation support. Its members deliver a wide range of services, from counselling and crisis support to supportive housing to hospital-based programs.
As CEO of AMHO, Jennifer Holmes Weier shares her insights on the challenges facing the system today, and the opportunities to create meaningful change for Ontarians.
From your perspective, what are the most pressing system-level challenges currently facing Ontario's mental health and addictions sector?
It will come as little surprise that operational sustainability remains the most pressing challenge facing Ontario's MHA system. This challenge is set against the backdrop of an unrelenting opioid and toxic drug crisis that continues to raise the human cost of waiting for care. At its core, it is about understanding what the sector can reasonably take on at current resource levels.
While the government has invested significantly across the health sector in recent years, particularly in new initiatives, annual funding for ongoing operations continues to fall short of what is required to sustain them year over year. Over time, this tension between resourcing, operational sustainability and rising demand for care has impacted organizational resilience and capacity, and intensified workforce challenges. The consequences are increasingly visible: longer wait times, disrupted care pathways, and more reliance on emergency departments and first responders as people experience escalating crises.
At the same time, there are genuine reasons for optimism. The government's efforts to build coordinated systems and to create and fund new integrated models of care are demonstrating what is possible when hospitals and community‑based providers are supported to work in partnership. These initiatives will help us build a more responsive and connected MHA system. Realizing their potential impact requires sustainable funding to successfully adopt, scale, and spread.
How has the policy environment evolved in recent years to better support integrated mental health and addictions care, and where are the remaining gaps?
Across Ontario, the Roadmap to Wellness has sparked a renaissance in the way we think about how data systems, collaboration, and integration can better support the needs of our communities. There are three initiatives we think illustrate this change really well, and that we're excited about.
From a data and process standpoint, new initiatives like Provincial Coordinated Access and the Provincial Data Set will use shared tools, standardized approaches, and centralized intake models to help people move more easily through the MHA system and attach to the care they need. For the first time, our sector will have a full view of who is accessing care, where gaps exist, and how people move through services.
At the same time, new frontline integrated care projects like HART Hubs and Youth Wellness Hubs are designed to help clients access a spectrum of MHA care in one place, connecting them to everything from primary health, to social supports, to treatment in their own neighbourhoods.
For these initiatives to be successful long-term, it is important that they are resourced alongside ongoing operations and reflect the full continuum of care. This includes support for change management, process improvement, and quality initiatives, like the work our team co-leads through the E-QIP program and the Data Champions project, in partnership with the CoE. Ultimately, we want to ensure that as the system evolves, the people powering it have the stability and skills they need to turn vision into a reality.
Transitions from hospital to community are a critical point in a patient's care pathway and where patients often fall through the cracks of the system. What policies or system changes could most effectively strengthen continuity of care after discharge?
In transitions between hospitals and community care settings, when breakdowns happen it's often not because services don't exist, but because there isn't enough capacity in the system. A warm handoff only works if there's a place for someone to go. If we want continuity of care to be more than aspirational, we need to ensure capacity on both sides of the system.
Across the province, community and hospital-based service providers have been working together to help the system function seamlessly. For example, in 2021, LOFT Community Services and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) launched “Path Home", a new program designed to address “Alternative Level of Care" pressures by providing specialized housing for adults and seniors who no longer require acute hospital care but lack a safe place to go.
With these types of partnerships and investments, we can ease pressure across the health care system and increase client outcomes. But the bigger opportunity is through upstream investments. The more supports that are available within communities, the fewer people who will reach crisis and require high-support hospital care in the first place. Prevention is the foundation of a more sustainable system. With that kind of support in place, transitions stop being a point of strain and start becoming a pathway toward stability.
Are there innovative funding or policy mechanisms that could accelerate the development of supportive housing for people with mental health and addiction challenges?
It is becoming increasingly clear that Ontario’s current approach to mental health and addictions supportive housing isn't optimized for today’s needs. AMHO's 2025 report, Unlocking Solutions, estimates there are over 36,000 people currently on a waiting list for MHA supportive housing — that's a city the size of Stratford or Orillia.
The reality is that supportive housing is one of the most compassionate and cost-effective MHA investments the province can make. It's proven to reduce emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and justice involvement. There are so many MHA supportive housing success stories across Ontario. Projects like 10 Shelldale in Guelph, operated by AMHO member Stonehenge Therapeutic Community, has seen zero deaths from drug poisonings and a 100% connection to primary care for its residents since opening in 2024.
Despite the evidence, these projects often take a long time and a lot of persistence to become a reality. Between 2016 and 2023, Ontario added about 2,300 new units of mental health and addictions supportive housing. The province's recent investment in HART Hubs will bring nearly 900 new MHA supportive housing units online over the next few years, but we need to get far more MHA supportive housing online quickly.
Housing is a core component of health care. At AMHO, we would love to work with the province to develop a Provincial Supportive Housing Secretariat, one which takes a whole-of-government approach to supportive housing, and breaks down the walls between housing, health, and social services. This would help better align funding and accountability so we can get resources where the need is most acute.
There's a real opportunity ahead of us to be ambitious. All three levels of government are showing their interest in getting supportive housing built. New agencies like Build Canada Homes and the willingness of municipalities to address zoning requirements are unlocking new solutions. However, capital investments are only part of the equation. Sustained operating funding for the MHA health care program is essential to power the wraparound services needed for success.
Looking ahead, what gives you the most optimism about the direction of Ontario's mental health and addictions system?
While there are systemic challenges and some recent policy changes that have drawn concern, we see meaningful progress and real appetite to focus on expanding and improving MHA care. Whether it's community-based providers, hospitals, or primary care, everyone sees that mental health and addictions needs special, focused attention. There's so much work happening on the frontlines to redefine how care is delivered and to try to scale it.
We also know that the public is behind us. Ontarians see investments in MHA care as investments worth making. That trust from the public is a powerful catalyst. More people than ever before are reaching out for help, and that's a good thing. It means they believe in the system. They know we can and will be there for them.
The opportunity ahead of us now is to let the resources match the intention. We have the leadership, support, and proven and innovative new models of care. By staying committed to sustaining these programs, we move closer to a system of profound support, one where everyone has access to the care they need, where and when they need it.
If you could prioritize one transformative change over the next 3-5 years, what would it be, and what impact would it have on patients and families?
In mental health and addictions care, our workforce is our infrastructure. Healing is driven by human connection, and right now, that connection is under a lot of strain.
Workforce instability, particularly in the community-based sector, constrains system performance. Rising compensation disparities between community-based organizations and other public sector employers are making it increasingly difficult to keep these skilled professionals in the sector or recruit the new ones our members desperately need. This isn't just an HR issue, it's a systemic funding issue and it's a leading reason why waitlists persist.
For families and individuals seeking care, prioritizing our workforce is the difference between a wait list and a welcome sign. It means that when a person is ready to reach out for help, there is someone there to meet them.
Addressing this shortfall isn't just an operational necessity — it is a foundational part of system change. If we want to move from a system defined by wait lists to one defined by timely access to care, we need to invest in the people who deliver care.