Officials at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor are looking into creating an emergency department solely for mental health.
CEO Janice Kaffer says the possibility is still seven to ten years away, but the need exists.
"The reason that we started the conversation around a mental health emergency department is partially because of the continued drain on police and EMS [emergency medical services] that mental health calls are taking," she says. "We know that when police and EMS take a mental health client into the emergency department at one of our two acute care hospitals, they can be tied up there for quite some time."
First, there are a few challenges that must be met in the community, says Kaffer, such as expanded mental health police teams in the county, greater consultation with other partners like the Canadian Mental Health Association, and addressing a shortage of psychiatrists.
"One of the big concerns that we have in Windsor-Essex that we've heard about is the lack of Psychiatry resources and the length of time it takes for somebody to get a referral from their family doctor to a psychiatrist," she says. "We have a lot of work to do as a community to attract more psychiatry."
Parkwood Hospital in London is exploring ways to open its own admissions unit, while Kaffer says a team from Hotel-Dieu Grace may visit a standalone department in Toronto run by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
"We know there are a couple of different models out there that we can take a look at," she says.
The idea was floated Wednesday night at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare's Board of Directors meeting.
Kaffer says other initiatives to address mental health demands in the community are working, including the year-old Transitional Stability Centre in downtown Windsor.
Once the proposed new acute care hospital on County Rd. 42 is complete, the long-term plan calls for Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare to assume responsibility for all mental health services in the region. At that time, the centre will relocate to what is now Windsor Regional Hospital's Ouellette Campus.
