The Ontario government has allocated $174 million for mental health and addictions care in the 2019 provincial budget, Finance Minister Vic Fedeli announced Thursday.
The province says this investment will support community mental health and addictions services, justice services, supportive housing and acute care inpatient beds. Priority areas for the government include building a system focused on core services embedded in a stepped-care model and a robust data and measurement framework. The budget also outlines that services will target indigenous and francophone populations.
The language used in today’s budget is in keeping with CMHA Ontario’s recommendations in our 2019 pre-budget submission. The submission contains five priority areas:
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- Access to standardized core set of mental health and addictions services
- New investments for data infrastructure to enable health quality improvement
- Direct investments in housing
- Enhanced integration of primary care and mental health and addictions services
- Expansion of Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams
“CMHA Ontario Division is delighted with the mental health and addictions care funding announced in the 2019 provincial budget,” said CMHA Ontario CEO Camille Quenneville. “The government’s specific investment in community mental health and addictions services shows it understands the importance of organizations like CMHA branches across the province in providing care to Ontarians with mental health and addictions-related needs where they live.”
“This is a positive step in the province’s 10-year, $3.8 billion commitment to mental health and addictions services. We look forward to continuing to work with the province to enhance client-centred, community-based approaches to mental health and addictions care.”