Local mental health urgent care centre gets $81,200 grant

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By August 4, 2020 10:25am

The urgent care clinic for mental health and addictions in downtown Windsor has received $81,200 to hire a new registered nurse and continue to evaluate its services.

The money is from the Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine and the Canadian Medical Association Foundation.

The Mental Health and Addictions Urgent Care Centre on Windsor Avenue is a joint initiative between Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and the Canadian Mental Health Association Windsor Essex County Branch. It opened in April when many primary care services were only offered on a limited basis during the pandemic. Clients are at a high risk of hospitalization.

The nurse has already been hired and is working alongside the clinic’s multidisciplinary staff, including psychiatrists, primary care physicians, social workers, and addiction specialists.

Since April, it has had 268 visits. More than 100 visits were from clients who said they would have gone to the Emergency Department had the clinic not been an option.

“Not only has access been improved to primary care — individuals are coming back,” said Doctor Mohammed Hussain, a primary care physician at the clinic and the principal investigator for the grant. “This is something not always experienced by our mental health patient population and a very positive strength of the program.”

Services at the clinic will continue until at least October. At that time, the hope is permanent funding will come through to keep it open in the long-term.

“This grant will not only allow us to continue to offer specialized and integrated mental health and addictions care to a high-risk group — it will allow for the fulsome continued evaluation of this service,” said Manager of HDGH’s Department of Research and Evaluation, Marla Jackson. “This work is important to help us understand this innovative model of care, so we can ensure we’re meeting the needs of our clients and our community.”