Ontario Health President and CEO Matthew Anderson said that the province’s new Mental Health and Addictions Plan is a great step forward in building a system that makes high quality mental health and addictions services available to Ontarians who need them, when they need them, regardless of where in the province they live.
“We look forward to the role Ontario Health will play in helping to ensure the success of this plan,” said Anderson.
The province’s new plan, called Roadmap to Wellness, was released today by the Honourable Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, and sets out a vision for connecting the various parts of the service continuum, including community mental health and addictions agencies, primary care, and acute care, into a comprehensive and connected provincial mental health and addictions system.
The plan is built on four pillars:
- Improving quality
- Expanding existing services
- Implementing innovative solutions
- Improving access
Driving implementation of the plan will be the new Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence within Ontario Health. By utilizing the strengths of the agencies that have come together under Ontario Health, including Cancer Care Ontario, its Quality division (formerly Health Quality Ontario) and working closely with key partners in mental health and addictions, the Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence will oversee service coordination and a meaningful quality improvement process for the transformed service system.
“It’s a privilege to be able to support improved services and supports for Ontarians through the Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence,” said Anderson. “We will work with people with lived experience as well as service providers on the frontlines in community agencies, primary care clinics and hospitals. We will rely on evidence about what works, routine reporting on how the system is performing, and clinical and programmatic leadership to drive improvements.”
Anderson noted that Ontario Health’s Clinical Lead for Mental Health and Addictions is Dr. Paul Kurdyak. Dr Kurdyak, a psychiatrist and clinician scientist, is Medical Director, Performance Improvement at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). He is also Director of Health Outcomes and Performance Evaluation at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research and Medical Director of Performance Improvement at CAMH. Dr. Kurdyak is also Lead of the Mental Health and Addictions Research Program at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).
Ontario Health is the provincial agency responsible for ensuring Ontarians continue to receive high-quality health care services where and when they need them.
To read the news release from the Ministry of Health about the provincial plan for mental health and addictions, please go here: https://news.ontario.ca/mohltc/en/2020/03/ontario-unveils-plan-to-build-mental-health-and-addictions-system.html
For more information contact:
Adele Small
Ontario Health
mediainquiries@ontariohealth.ca
1-877-266-6031