Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare is teaming up with the Ontario Provincial Police to create a new mental health response unit in Leamington.
The Erie St.Clair Local Health Integration Network is investing $120,000 in the new, four-member unit. It pairs two mental health workers with two police officers serving residents in southern Essex County.
Member Sherry Metiver says the approach has been successful in helping some of the county's most vulnerable residents. "Both systems (mental health and policing) have their limitations," she says. "Police could only force a person to get mental health services under certain, very narrow, criteria. And the hospital could only provide services to people who were willing. We meet that cohort of people in between."
The expansion in services means more people suffering mental health issues will get the help they need. "Leamington is in need of mental health services. The referrals here are immense."
Metiver says up to 20% of cases she oversees involve hoarding. Other cases involve dementia, delusions and patients in long-term care facilities. "I would say that we probably ballpark around 30 to 40 new cases a week."
