PERTH/WELLINGTON – The head of the local Canadian Mental Health Association branch welcomes additional mental health services for rural residents but wished the province consulted with existing providers before launching a mobile mental health and addictions clinic.
On June 13, the province announced a new mobile mental health and addictions service in the Huron-Bruce and Perth-Wellington region in partnership with Medavie Health Services. Perth-Wellington includes Wellington County’s three northern municipalities of Mapleton, Minto and Wellington North.
A media release said the clinic will have a multidisciplinary team including a social worker, registered nurse or nurse practitioner who can provide a range of services or referrals operating five days per week in “set locations” not specified in the announcement.
“The new mobile clinic will make it easier to access high-quality mental health and addictions services by bringing the care closer to home – in the community,” a media release stated.
“Mobile clinics operate by having a clinical team that travels between communities, reducing the distance that people in rural communities have to go to find care and serving more people in the process.”
There’s no question more mental health services and funding are needed in the region, said Helen Fishburn, Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington (CMHAWW) CEO.
However, this provincial announcement came as a surprise as Fishburn was not aware of it ahead of time.
“We’ve been really clear about the increases in volumes that we’ve experienced, overall about 40 per cent, since the pandemic … there’s no doubt that the need is there,” Fishburn said. “I think the part that is unfortunate is that when this new funding landed in the Goderich community and its serving many rural areas, there wasn’t any consultation with existing providers.”
Catherine Hardman, CEO of CMHA Huron-Perth, brought up similar concerns as Fishburn in an interview with StratfordToday.
Fishburn thinks CMHAWW could have been helpful in informing the province on what’s needed and would alleviate any questions or concerns the community might have around who provides what service and where this service covers.
“Final coverage area and boundaries will be decided by Medavie in consultation with the community,” said a spokesperson for the associate minister of mental health and addictions Michael Tibollo in an email. “It will become operational once renovations to the van and those community consultations are completed.”
While Fishburn would have ultimately preferred the province to fund building capacity through existing providers, she said rural communities will benefit from more care.
“Rural communities in particular struggle even more with isolation and connecting to care, you know, travel, geography, sometimes it takes somebody an hour to get to an appointment by car,” Fishburn said. “We welcome another rural provider, we welcome the opportunity for more care, we just really need some time to coordinate and collaborate.”
Requests for comment from Medavie Health Services were not returned.
