'Harm Reduction Hub' in the works for mental health/addictions patients

Representatives from a host of agencies, included within the Central Algoma Mental Health and Addictions Collaborative, held a virtual forum Tuesday morning for some shop talk and an announcement of some new programs and services available for those who need them.

“Increasing access to mental health and addictions services is a priority for the Central Algoma Planning Table,” said Annette Katajamaki, Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Sault Ste. Marie Branch executive director.

New programs available through the CMHA Sault Ste. Marie Branch include a peer support service (the Peer Navigator program) within the emergency department at Sault Area Hospital (SAH).

“It began just before Christmas of last year. The program staffs an employee of CMHA, a peer worker who has been specially trained...to work with the entire team in the emergency department. The program assists with appropriate referrals to other services if necessary and hopefully decreases the level of crisis present in the emergency department, and also promotes a sense of respect and wellbeing to those who are in the emergency department with a mental health and/or addictions issue,” Katajamaki said. 

The Peer Navigator program runs seven days a week from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Mental Health and Justice: Housing Support Services is a second new CMHA program.

“It supports people who are being released from correctional facilities...and people who are on diversion plans in our mental health court system who would likely be better stabilized if they had appropriate, affordable, accessible housing. Rent supplements are provided in order to house people and there is a matching with a case manager to provide the ongoing human resource support,” Katajamaki said.

Thirdly, CMHA is now offering a Community Harm Reduction Hub which has been funded for three years by Health Canada.

“We’re hoping to create a hub model where all the community agencies that currently provide services in health, mental health and addictions, primary care, Indigenous health care, work together to provide a place for people to get the services they need where and when they need them,” Katajamaki said.

The site for the hub is yet to be named.

New programs and services in place at SAH include an addiction medicine consult team.

“It provides consultation and expert advice in treating substance use, improving patient insight and readiness to change and support for substance use withdrawal, maintenance and replacement therapies,” Katajamaki said.

A second new SAH feature is the Safe Bed program.

“It is co-located within the hospital and it’s intended to serve people who are in immediate contact with the police...to divert people in a mental health and/or addictions crisis from incarceration, the justice system or unnecessary hospitalization,” Katajamaki explained.

Mention was also made of the Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team (MCRRT), a partnership between SAH and the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service.

That program pairs up a police officer with a mental health specialist, such as a crisis worker, to quickly respond to emergency calls which involve mental health and/or addictions issues.

The service is provided between 12 p.m. and 10 p.m. seven days a week, with a transitional case manager who works Monday through Friday.

Tuesday’s forum was originally intended to be held in March but was derailed by COVID and held virtually instead.

The forum came nearly six months after a decision by Algoma Public Health (APH) to transfer addictions and mental health programs to a community-based provider, CMHA considered the most appropriate agency to deliver such programs and services.

Intended to reduce duplication in services, a memorandum of understanding was signed between APH and CMHA, recognizing CMHA would purchase existing services from APH for one year.

Staff from both agencies continue to interact, working out details concerning migration of staff, space and locations.

Over 160 people were expected to attend Tuesday’s forum, held as a ‘come and go’ virtual event.

Attending the forum, which was expected to last well into the afternoon, were representatives from:

• Algoma Family Services
• Batchewana First Nation
• A New Link - Breton House
• District of Sault Ste. Marie Social Services
• Ken Brown Recovery Home
• Maamwesying North Shore Community Health Services
• Phoenix Rising
• Sault Area Hospital (SAH)
• Women In Crisis
• Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA)