KENORA — The Ontario government is providing an additional $240,000 this year Lake-of-the-Woods District Hospital in Kenora to support nurse practitioner-led detox services.
“We made a promise to the people of Ontario to address the growing frustration with capacity issues within our mental health and addictions system,” said Associate Minister Tibollo. “Despite the additional challenges facing Ontarians during this outbreak, we are focused on increasing capacity and addressing wait times for services, so that Ontarians can get quality care and improve their quality of life.”
“Our government is enhancing access to mental health care for our community, particularly in light of increased demands during COVID-19,” said Greg Rickford, MPP for Kenora–Rainy River. “We are committed to supporting for our front-line workers, including the vital work done by nurse practitioners in detox programs as they make difference in the lives of vulnerable members of our community.”
This funding comes from the Ontario Government’s efforts to help expand access for critical mental health and addictions supports during COVID-19. This is a part of the province’s $3.8 billion investment over 10 years to enable Ontario’s comprehensive plan, A Roadmap to Wellness, that will deliver high-quality care and build a modern, connected and comprehensive mental health and addictions system.
“This funding opportunity will provide an incredible enhancement to the Morningstar Center,” said Denise Forsyth, Director of Adult Community Mental Health at Lake-of-the-Woods District Hospital. “It is a step in the right direction – meeting the clients where they are at and providing consistent medical care to people who suffer from addictions. It will allow us to expand our care framework while we continue to provide quality care. We will look forward to continuing to build our service in collaboration with our clients, staff, and partners.”
For 2020/21, Ontario has invested an additional $176 million to address urgent gaps in care, enhance access to mental health and addictions services, create new supports and expand programs. As part of this funding, the province is investing in targeted community and residential addictions services including $4 million for detox services to improve the medical management of clients who are withdrawing from substance use in residential withdrawal management facilities.
“Our government is making it easier for people to find and access high-quality mental health and addictions services when and where they need them,” said Minister Elliott. “We’re working across government and with system partners to provide long-term stability and investments in critical services to improve and modernize the system and close urgent gaps in care.”
To enable Roadmap to Wellness, Ontario is investing $3.8 billion over 10 years to create new services and expand programs. The province has started to fill urgent gaps in care as identified by system partners. This year’s $176 million increase builds on the $174 million the government invested last year in more funding for mental health and addictions programs, bringing new base investments across the sector since 2019-20 to a total of more than $350 million.