Better services for mental issues
Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government is supporting the relocation and creation of a new residential withdrawal management services site in Sault Ste. Marie with $343,000 in new ongoing operational funding.
Sault member of provincial parliament Ross Romano confirmed that the funds will support operational expenses such as rent, food plans, laundry and other related operating costs.
“Our entire community has been working so hard for so long to get to this point, and we’ve all been impacted by significant losses along the way,” Romano relayed. “For years, we have been pleading for an appropriate level of residential treatment and care for those struggling with mental health and addictions.
“(This) announcement is the single largest accomplishment to the grand opening of Sault Ste. Marie’s new community-based Residential Withdrawal Management Centre. This puts us on a pathway towards better services for people facing mental health and addiction challenges,” Romano noted.
In fact, the funding is the first step in securing a new site for Sault Area Hospital’s residential withdrawal management program and sets the project on a course to completion in the coming months. SAH will need to secure a lease agreement at the new site and receive a zoning amendment from the City of Sault Ste. Marie.
“I want to thank all of the members of our community for their hard work and advocacy. I want to offer a very special thank you to the team at Sault Area Hospital for their incredible diligence, resolve and perseverance,” added Romano.
“(This) investment is such a tremendous accomplishment and allows us to move onto the next step of securing our new location. I look forward to providing more updates in the coming weeks as we continue to work with the Ministry of Health and the City of Sault Ste. Marie on further details of our location and grand opening,” the Sault MPP continued.
Withdrawal management services, formerly referred to as detoxification services, were moved to the current Sault Area Hospital site as a temporary measure following a fire and a flood at the original Queen Street location in 2020. Once completed, this newly renovated location will provide a modern facility and improved access to 20 community-based residential withdrawal management/safe beds, as well as key services including close observation, monitoring medical support and education about substance use.
The relocated centre will help address the Sault’s growing need for mental health and addiction supports. An additional four medical beds will be maintained at SAH for those requiring a more acute level of addictions care.
Sault mayor Christian Provenzano noted that the “opioid epidemic has had a dramatic and negative effect on our community in a number of different ways, most disconcerting is the loss of life. This will continue until the health care infrastructure available in our community to support people who need addiction, withdrawal and recovery services is commensurate to the need.
“This announcement is an important step in that direction and I thank the provincial government for approving and funding Sault Area Hospital’s proposal. I also want to recognize and thank our health care and service providers who are working tirelessly every day to care for people in our community who need and rely on their support,” Provenzano added.
This new funding commitment builds on the recent investments from the provincial government to support better mental health and addictions services in the Sault, specifically:
• $120,000 to Sault Area Hospital for mobile withdrawal services to increase access to community withdrawal management services for hard to service clients, including those located in rural areas;
• $155,000 to Sault Area Hospital to fund nurse practitioners for detox services to improve the medical management of clients who are withdrawing from substance use in residential withdrawal management facilities;
• $80,800 for Algoma Family Services to support the increase to mental health counselling and therapy for young people in the Sault.
