{"id":23899,"date":"2019-05-31T13:08:16","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T17:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23899"},"modified":"2019-05-31T13:08:26","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T17:08:26","slug":"local-mental-health-and-addiction-services-groups-receive-3-million-provincial-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/local-mental-health-and-addiction-services-groups-receive-3-million-provincial-boost\/","title":{"rendered":"Local mental health and addiction services groups receive $3 million provincial boost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addiction Services for York\nRegion set out this past winter to make inroads into many of our community\u2019s\nhotspots, working with youth and adults dealing with substance use challenges\nwithout the means to seek help with the launch of their mobile unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, thanks to a significant\ncash infusion by the Provincial Government, the Aurora-based organization is\npreparing to double down in making a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addiction Services for York\nRegion (ASYR) was one of eight local organizations to benefit from $2.97\nmillion in Provincial Funding announced by Health Minister \u2013 and\nNewmarket-Aurora MPP \u2013 Christine Elliott on Wednesday at the Canadian Mental Health\nAssociation \u2013 York Region & South Simcoe\u2019s Aurora headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Elliott was joined by\nAurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MPP Michael Parsa, York Simcoe MPP Caroline\nMulroney, King MPP Stephen Lecce and a host of other dignitaries at the\nannouncement, which will see ASYR receive $1.315 million of the allocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Kinark Child and\nFamily Services will receive $1.05 million, Lance Krasman Memorial Centre for\nCommunity Mental Health $160,700, York Support Services Network $150,000,\nFamily Services of York Region $148,752, CMHA York Region $123,915, and Bethany\nLodge $22,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, the Province\nsaid Ontario\u2019s mental health care system is \u201cdisconnected, making it difficult\nfor patients and families to get the care and services they need,\u201d leaving many\nvulnerable Ontarians having to navigate a \u201cconfusing\u201d system on their own and\naccess timely mental health care only when in crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur government is keeping\nour promise to make mental health and addictions a priority,\u201d said Ms. Elliott.\n\u201cThis additional funding will go directly towards services for patients and\nfamilies and reduce wait times, enhance opioids and addictions services, create\nadditional housing and build capacity in youth mental health right here in our\ncommunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese investments are part\nof our government\u2019s commitment to invest $3.8 billion over the next 10 years to\ndevelop and implement a comprehensive and connected mental health and\naddictions strategy. Together, we will create a connected system of care with\ncomprehensive wrap-around services to ensure that every Ontarian is fully\nsupported in their journey towards mental wellness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Mr. Parsa: \u201cThis\nannouncement is a clear indication of our government\u2019s commitment to protecting\nwhat matters most by ensuring that the residents of York Region, and Ontario,\nhave the supports they need, when they need them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ensuring the residents of\nYork Region, South Simcoe and beyond had the supports they need when they\nneeded them was a driving force behind the launch of ASYR\u2019s Rapid Access\nAddition Medicine Clinics, or RAAMs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With their significant\nfunding infusion, Penny Marrett, Executive Director of ASYR, says youth will be\na primary demographic to benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur focus is providing\nsupports and treatments for people living with addictions, and their loved\nones,\u201d says Ms. Marrett. \u201cWe are going to be looking at supporting youth in a\nmore targeted way in some areas, and we\u2019re going to be supporting their loved\nones also. We\u2019re going to expand some of the services we currently offer and\nexpanding the RAAM clinics we run. We currently run five of them and next month\nwe will be starting our sixth one. [This funding] will enable us to expand them\nfor individuals who are experiencing some substance use disorder, whether it is\nopioid, alcohol or another substance. They can walk into one of these clinics\nwithout an appointment, low barrier, talk to one of our nurses, who will\nconnect them with an addictions medicine specialist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the addictions medicine\nspecialists will determine whether some sort of pharmacal therapy would assist\nthem with their substance use disorder. That is a very exciting for us to be\nable to expand that piece. Part of this will enable us to go into more\nunder-served communities. This funding will enable us to look at how we can\nactually continue that because if you don\u2019t have your own transportation, it is\nchallenging at times for public transit to be able to make it to our clinics\nbecause our clinics are not open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clinics are currently located\nin hospitals throughout York Region, including Southlake Regional Health Centre\nand Stevenson Memorial. ASYR\u2019s goal is to move it out further into the\ncommunity to enable people to get services outside of the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their vision is to continue\ncollaborative work with their partners as it related to the Provincial Opioid\nStrategy to see how they can come up with additional publicly-funded\nresidential treatment beds, all of which in York Region are, at the moment,\nprivately-funded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to pay and it is\nnot cheap,\u201d says Ms. Marrett. \u201cWe want to be able provide some of our partners\nwho provide residential treatment with some funding so that individuals who\nreally are in need who might not be able to afford it can participate and can\nactually begin to address some of the concerns they have related to their\nsubstance use.\u201d <\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Addiction Services for York Region set out this past winter to make inroads into many of our community\u2019s hotspots, working with youth and adults dealing with substance use challenges without the means to seek help with the launch of their mobile unit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6dt","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 05:03:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}