{"id":216240,"date":"2019-05-27T21:39:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T01:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=216240"},"modified":"2019-05-27T21:39:15","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T01:39:15","slug":"ontario-to-establish-central-agency-to-oversee-mental-health-and-addictions-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/27\/ontario-to-establish-central-agency-to-oversee-mental-health-and-addictions-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario to establish central agency to oversee mental health and addictions care"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The new centre will be responsible for developing, standardizing, and monitoring care across the province. (Shutterstock Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2014 Ontario is establishing an agency to oversee mental health and addictions care across the province in a bid to improve access to treatment.<\/p>\n

The government said Monday that the new agency \u2014 dubbed the Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence \u2014 would act as a \u201ccentral engine\u201d for care oversight, improving upon a system that’s currently fragmented and confusing for patients and their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe heard that patients and families … (are) waiting too long to get the services they need,\u201d said Robin Martin, the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health. \u201cWhen they finally get to the front of the line they often experience disconnected care.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new centre will be responsible for developing, standardizing, and monitoring care across the province.<\/p>\n

It will be part of province’s health super agency, Ontario Health, which was announced in February and consolidates 14 local health integration networks, Cancer Care Ontario, eHealth Ontario and several other agencies.<\/p>\n

Martin likened the new centre’s operations to Cancer Care Ontario, which was established in 1995 to help provide up-to-date cancer knowledge and tools to improve care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the support of the Centre of Excellence, Ontario will finally be able to standardize the quality and delivery of mental health and addictions services across the province and help patients and families access better and more consistent patient services and supports,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Martin could not say how much will be spent to establish the agency, what its annual budget will be or how many people it will employ.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re not trying to create a large bureaucracy,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we’re trying to do is model Cancer Care Ontario’s vision … on standardization, quality and performance and oversight. But we don’t want to proliferate back office support, that’s the whole point of Ontario Health, to have these organizations share back office support.\u201d<\/p>\n

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called the lack of details on the new centre troubling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like another back-of-the-napkin kind of salvo that the government is throwing out there to try to take attention from some of the troubles they’re in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Horwath said the government has made cuts to the mental health system and reduced the number of safe consumption sites, which will hurt people suffering from addictions issues. The government needs to invest more money in the system, she said.<\/p>\n

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said he’s concerned that local feedback could be sidelined if too much authority is consolidated in one office inside the government and not in communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere seems to be a lot of centralization in Ontario health care right now and it’s about a balance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Green party Leader Mike Schreiner said the government should create a stand-alone ministry to oversee mental health and addictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the overdose crisis worsens and as we learn more about the mental health gaps across Ontario and the world, the need for a stand-alone ministry will only increase,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cIt is important to have a minister and ministry to be accountable for the mental health and addictions crisis we face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ontario Medical Association president Dr. Sohail Gandi said Monday that the province’s doctors welcome the new strategy and believe it could help patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day we see the impact of a patchwork of mental health and addictions programs,\u201d Gandi said in a statement, adding that doctors are ready to work with the government to ensure the new strategy meets the health needs of the people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Ontario is establishing an agency to oversee mental health and addictions care across the province in a bid …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":161550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-shawn-jeffords","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216240"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216242,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216240\/revisions\/216242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}