A restructuring of Ontario’s Ministry of Health has resulted in the creation of a new Mental Health and Addictions Division.
Announced on Sept. 16, the Mental Health and Addictions Division is one of four new divisions within the ministry. The province says the Mental Health and Addictions Division will lead the development and implementation of Ontario’s mental health and addictions strategy. This change follows the creation of an Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions role last June and assumed by Michael Tibollo, MPP for Vaughan—Woodbridge.
The other new divisions now in effect are the Ontario Health Teams Division, which will provide leadership and oversight to facilitate the development and creation of Ontario Health Teams; Capacity Planning and Analytics Division, which merges the existing Capacity Planning and Capital Division with the Information Management, Data and Analytics Division to integrate capacity planning, analytic functions and the health human resource strategy; and Emergency Health Services Division, which realigns the Emergency Health Program Management and Delivery Branch and the Emergency Health Regulatory and Accountability Branch.
The following divisions have also been renamed or realigned:
- The Strategic Implementation Division has been renamed the Health Transformation Division. This division will lead the implementation of the ministry’s key transformation initiatives, including continued support for the establishment of the new Ontario Health agency and the cross-government supply chain initiative.
- The Digital Health Secretariat has been renamed the Digital Health Division. The division will support a digital approach to health service modernization.
- Mike Heenan, who recently joined the ministry as Assistant Deputy Minister, Hospitals and Emergency Services, has added health capital to his new division, now named the Hospitals and Capital Division.
- The Strategic Policy and Planning Division has been renamed the Strategic Policy, Planning and French Language Services Division and will provide centralized and co-ordinated support for the sector’s French language services.
- The French Language Services Office has moved to the Health Equity Branch. The Health Equity Branch has been renamed the Indigenous, French Language and Priority Populations Branch.
- The Community, Mental Health Addictions and French Language Services Division has been dissolved. The division’s remaining branch, Primary Health Care, has been moved to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan Division.
For more information, read this CBC report.