New program to help address mental health needs

Health Sciences North expects a new videoconferencing initiative to expand access to its community crisis services, which have been under increasing strain due to growing demand.

The community crisis services were established in 2012 to provide support for the growing impact mental illness has on the community.

In the last year, mental health interventions across all of Health Sciences North's services – which include a crisis phone line, the hospital emergency department, and community-based office visits – increased by 185 per cent.

In the same time period the increase in demand from youth was even more dramatic, with a 261 per cent increase in visits across all services.

“What we're seeing across all age spans is people whose lives are becoming increasingly complex and increasingly stressful,” said Maureen McLelland, administrative director of Health Sciences North's Mental Health and Addictions Program. “We're just seeing this need in the community growing and growing.”

The Mental Health and Addictions Program deals with everything from severe mental illness to clients who have recently been through traumatic life events – including their losing jobs or severe break-ups.

McLelland said one reason demand has grown is that people are more aware of the services available in Sudbury for mental health problems.

“People are finding us,” she said. “We've done some direct advertising to consumers, we've done radio, we've done billboards. We're trying to let people know the service exists and it's available 24 hours.”

In-person visits at the Mental Health and Addictions Centre downtown, located at 127 Cedar Street, make up the largest proportion of mental health interventions, said McLelland.

But the hospital's emergency department is the second most common way patients get in touch with mental health crisis workers.

McLelland said that is problematic.

“It (the emergency department) is not uniquely designed to be sensitive to the needs of somebody with a mental health issue,” she said.

McLelland said emergency department visits can often mean long wait times for people experiencing a mental health crisis and a lack of privacy.

But the downtown centre is designed specifically to help people in crisis.

Videoconferencing is another way people in crisis can reach out to mental health crisis workers.

In October Health Sciences North started a new videoconferencing program for people in more remote communities, who cannot access mental health services in person.

The program launched at the Espanola General Hospital and Manitoulin Health Centre – where patients can have a virtual face-to-face counselling session with social workers in Sudbury.

Thanks to a $5,000 donation from Bell Canada, the program will expand to the Noojmowin Teg Health Centre in Little Current and Kina Gbezhgomi Child and Family Services, based at Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve, on Manitoulin Island.

Robin Cheslock, a social worker and clinical team lead at the Crisis Intervention Centre, said the videoconferencing allows him to build a better connection with his clients than phone interventions.

“When you're on the phone it's a disembodied voice. You don't know who you're talking to,” he said. “With video they're actually able to see us.”

Cheslock said about 80 per cent of the information he gathers from clients comes from visual cues, and only 20 per cent is verbal.

With video he can read their body language and see their facial expressions to better determine how they're feeling.

Since launching in October 19 people have chosen to connect with crisis intervention workers through videoconferencing.

McLelland said she expects that number to improve as the service expands.