{"id":36496,"date":"2025-07-03T13:05:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T17:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36496"},"modified":"2025-07-10T17:45:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T21:45:30","slug":"regional-mental-health-centre-gets-provincial-boost-as-it-eyes-2027-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/regional-mental-health-centre-gets-provincial-boost-as-it-eyes-2027-opening\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional Mental Health Centre gets Provincial boost as it eyes 2027 opening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

York Region\u2019s Mental Health and Community Care Centre is eyeing an opening in \u201cearly 2027\u201d following a fresh infusion of cash from the Provincial Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project, which will be led by the Canadian Mental Health Association of York Region and South Simcoe (CMHA-YRSS) in Newmarket, received a significant boost in support from the Ontario Ministry of Health on Thursday afternoon when Newmarket-Aurora MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy presented the project with a one-time grant of $1,095,100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grant is intended to help the CMHA-YRSS in start-up costs as work continues to transform a disused commercial building on Yonge Street into a place where all can come to receive immediate mental health care interventions and referrals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMental health is deeply personal to so many of us, whether it\u2019s a family member, a friend, a neighbour, even ourselves,\u201d said MPP Gallagher Murphy. \u201cToday, I am truly proud to be able to stand before you and announce that our government is investing $1,095,100 in one-time funding for the [year] 24-25 to support the first year of facility and start-up costs for the new York Region Mental Health and Community Care Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis new 24-7 community-based facility will offer critical support to individuals in mental health crises. Once open, the hub will provide up to 10 crises and stabilization beds. The Centre will be the first of its kind in York Region, providing care for individuals age 12 and up. Through its integrated approach and strong partnerships, it will guide people to the next step in their recovery and away from emergency rooms that are already stretched thin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallagher Murphy assured the CMHA-YRSS that the June 26 announcement was \u201cone of many to come\u201d and acknowledged the organization\u2019s \u201cpassion, leadership and care\u201d within the communities it serves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This appreciation was reciprocated by Rebecca Shields, CEO of the CMHA-YRSS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shields said she was grateful for Gallagher Murphy\u2019s \u201ctireless advocacy\u201d both on the mental health file and in making this Centre a reality \u2013 and she noted the ongoing work behind the scenes to make it a reality as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are making progress,\u201d said Shields, standing in front of the stripped-back building which was most recently a Mission Thrift Store which moved to a space across the street two years ago. \u201cOver the past year, we\u2019ve done a lot of site preparation work, a lot of the capital planning work, we\u2019ve been inside removing the mold, fixing up the roof, and we\u2019ve been doing all the excavations. We\u2019ve been doing all the site permitting, we\u2019ve been doing all the soil testing and getting read. With the support of the Town of Newmarket, we got our zoning bylaw amendment, so we are ready to go as we cost out in this next stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re happy to be on site as we prepare over the next year to get those shovels in the ground, but really to get the renovation going. On the planning side, we have six committees up and running. These committees range from our first responders like our police and paramedics on how we bring people into the Centre.  We’ve been able to submit documents and attestations around having this centre as an alternate destination, and we’re really excited about that because this is what it’s all about: ensuring that people get the right immediate access to specialised care when they need it most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’ve also been working with our partners to look at all of our equity-deserving or equity denied-groups, all the way from youth, individuals from the Black community, from different ethno-cultural communities, our Indigenous partners, to ensure that this is a culturally safe and welcoming place for those when they come \u2013 a lot of planning work around health equity. We’ve also been engaging in a tremendous amount of work as to what’s going to happen after. Working with all of our other mental health and social care partners from Addiction Services of York Region, all the way from our shelters and our other community providers, primary care, on how do we make those referrals and transitions? Because if you’re going to make sure somebody’s first mental health crisis is their last, you have to make sure that they’re connected to the right supports that they need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To bring the facility fully into fruition, Shields noted the CMHA-YRSS\u2019 Lead the Way capital campaign is ongoing, allowing residents at large \u201cto make the difference and make the experience in this hub what it\u2019s really meant to be, which is somewhere where people feel welcome [and] this is where they want to come when they need help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether your age is 12 and up, and you\u2019re coming because you have anxiety or you\u2019re coming because you\u2019re having trouble with substance abuse or alcohol, this is a place where you\u2019re going to get the care and the supports we need,\u201d Shields concluded. \u201cThank you again to the Government of Ontario for ensuring that we can continue to do this work and get ready to open the doors, hopefully early in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are interested in contributing to the Lead the Way campaign, visit www.thecentre-yr.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

York Region\u2019s Mental Health and Community Care Centre is eyeing an opening in \u201cearly 2027\u201d following a fresh infusion of cash from the Provincial Government. The project, which will be led by the Canadian Mental Health Association of York Region and South Simcoe (CMHA-YRSS) in Newmarket, received a significant boost in support from the Ontario […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36497,"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-36496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07-03-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9uE","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 08:58:35","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\/36496","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=36496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36498,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36496\/revisions\/36498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}