Windsor, ON: This week, as Canadians are encouraged to #getreal about how they feel during National Mental Health Awareness Week, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH) announced today it will soon add a Partial Hospitalization Program, or PHP, to its mental health and addictions services, a program option for individuals experiencing persistent, acute mental illness.

The west-end community-based hospital offering a spectrum of Mental Health and Addiction Services said they are reinvesting funds to support the creation of the PHP, and will continue to permanently offer services through its Mental Health and Addiction Urgent Care Centre (MHAUCC) which operates at 744 Ouellette Avenue.

“In the initial months of the pandemic, HDGH along with many other health care organizations were forced to defer some of its program and services. We took this time to explore the long-term needs of our community and identify gaps especially as they relate to mental health and addictions,” explained Janice Kaffer, HDGH President and CEO. “What was realized is that we had an opportunity and obligation to provide hundreds of more individuals with the mental health and addictions support they need in continuing to create a high-quality, accessible, local mental health and addictions system people can count on.”

A Partial Hospitalization Program is a highly structured, short-term treatment program for adult clients aged 16 years and older experiencing acute psychotic and severe or persistent mental health issues. In a day-treatment, outpatient setting, clients would receive individualized, recovery-focused, goal-oriented treatment by a multidisciplinary team. PHPs are quickly becoming the standard of care across leading mental health and addictions providers across Ontario. While the HDGH team is currently working through its operational details the program is intended to launch this year.

Along with the PHP, the reinvestment will also ensure a permanent continuation of services at the MHAUCC for the community. The MHAUCC was opened as a pandemic response by HDGH and the Canadian Mental Health Association Windsor-Essex County Branch (CMHA WECB) in April of 2020. The team of an addiction counsellor, mental health social workers, RPN, and on-call psychiatrists have settled into their permanent home at The Crisis and Mental Wellness Centre located at 744 Ouellette Avenue from 11 am – 7 pm, Monday to Friday.

The addition of these innovative new programs to HDGH’s Adult Mental Health and Addictions portfolio comes a month after the provincial government’s budget announcement where HDGH was included as part of the $60 billion in funding for infrastructure projects across the province. A yet-to-be-announced portion of these funds will go to an investment in bed expansion for inpatient mental health at HDGH’s Prince Road campus.

“It is no secret that the pandemic has emphasized the mental health and addiction struggles that existed before COVID. As a community hospital leading our community in mental health and addiction service delivery, we have a responsibility not only to respond to these needs but also get ahead of them – the PHP and MHAUCC are examples of this,” explained Kaffer. “We applaud the government’s most recent investment in Windsor/Essex and are confident that through ongoing conversation and engagement with our community partners, patients, clients, their families, and caregivers as well as continued funding from our government, we can deliver a system that is connected, accessible, innovative and that most importantly, changes lives.”

For more information on HDGH Mental Health and Addictions programs and services visit www.hdgh.org