The Ontario Mental Health and Addictions Leadership Advisory Council has outlined five priority areas in an attempt to begin overhauling the system-level transformation of mental health and addictions in Ontario. The five priority areas – as unveiled Dec. 16, 2015 in its inaugural report, Better Mental Health Means Better Health – are to improve the transition supports from youth to adult, create parity between the province’s mental health and addictions systems and other parts of the health-care system, improve supports for Indigenous people, prioritize investments in supportive housing, and to ensure a single provincial ministry is handling youth addictions policy and programming.
“Bettering mental health and additions care in Ontario is a necessity,” CMHA Ontario CEO and Council member Camille Quenneville said. “All people in this province should have suitable supports with ease of access. Paying particular attention to these five steps will help that become a reality.”
The Council’s report adheres to the objectives of Ontario’s Comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Strategy, Open Minds, Health Minds, from 2011.
Open Minds, Health Minds raised six key challenges about mental health and additions services: the access to them, the equity for marginalized groups to receive them, the fragmentation of integration between the two facets, the quality of them, the lack of measurable data, and prevention, promotion and early intervention.
To read the full report Ontario Mental Health and Addictions Leadership Advisory Council, visit the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care website.