The head of the Canadian Mental Health Association Middlesex is reassuring the public that a move to streamline phone services to a single access point won't jeopardize the individuals who rely on them.
The CMHA announced Monday that a one-phone number access line is being created for those dealing with mental health and addiction issues across London, Middlesex, Oxford, and Elgin
Dr. Steven Harrison says this is part of a large coordinated care process that is going on in the southwest region.
"Right now trying to navigate the system of mental health and addition services is not at all easy," says Dr. Harrison. "Even for those on the inside of the system, trying to understand how to navigate between and within organizations to get the right kind of supports for folks is pretty tough. This is one of the multiple steps being taken over the next several years in order to get towards that solution of a simpler access system for individuals."
The streamline of crisis support phone access points means the end for the call-based London and District Distress Centre (LDDC). It will close its doors at the end of 2016 after 48 years.
Funding that previously went to the centre will now be directed to ConnexOntario Health Services. The organization's proposal to coordinate the single access line was unanimously approved earlier this year.
"Really what it comes down to is the service that was offered by LDDC in the past will continue to be offered by another organization, Connex and CMHA. The connection to the local community will be maintained through that phone system, which we will be supporting at the Crisis Centre at 648 Huron St. at CMHA," says Dr. Harrison. "No one should be worried about losing services. Our commitment is to make sure that we do nothing but backfill where gaps have been heard of in the past and make sure those services continue into the future."
LDDC's trained volunteers answer roughly 20,000 phone calls per year, 24 hours a day.
Dr. Harrison says the transition from LDDC to ConnexOntario will include an evaluation of those calls to make sure they are meeting service needs.
"Part of our process around the realignment and new way of doing this is to truly fine tune the services that are available to meet the needs of those who are calling in," says Dr. Harrison. "Then on an annual basis we will do an evaluative review of what our call volumes look like and what the demands are and tweak accordingly from there."
Dr. Harrison says the CMHA is committed to ensuring there will be no hiccups in service delivery during the transition of services.
