THUNDER BAY – St. Joseph’s Care Group is one step closer to transitioning out of the Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital while transforming mental health treatment to a community-based approach.
The organization on Friday unveiled an expansion to their Victoriaville location that offers mental health outpatient programming and supports, many of which were previously provided at the site of the psychiatric hospital.
Dubbed Health Centre South, the new space is located just across the hallway from the existing St. Joseph’s Health Centre that opened in 2007.
“Years ago when we started talking about closing the Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital we committed to this community that there would be services in the community and that our clients’ needs would be met appropriately in different environments,” St. Joseph’s Care Group chief executive officer Tracy Buckler said.
“These are all parts of that continuum of care that we need to provide. That’s far more appropriately provided in community settings and different environments.”
Health Centre South brings the organization’s Peer Connections, Employment Options and TeamWerks Co-operative which includes a café, woodworking shop and other skills training opportunities, together with clinical services and a range of medical professionals to meet a variety of individual needs.
Kristine Quaid, now the peer council chair and Peer Connections lead, sought mental health treatment five years ago and said this model gives control to clients.
“When you’re stuck in a hospital it’s all about the hospital. It’s everything, the hospital. They tell you what to do, how to do it, for what length of time to do it,” Quaid said.
“It’s so very structured whereas here it’s a more relaxed environment where you make that choice and determination. It’s very self-directed.”
It’s even more important for mental health recovery, she added.
“It’s all self-direction and self-motivation and things that you decide to do, you’re more apt to do them because you have a vested interest in them, not because somebody told you to do it,” Quaid said.
“If you can make those choices it instills hope and it just gives you everything that you need to move forward in your life.”
Buckler said the capital cost to prepare the space, which is being leased from the city, was $1.9 million and was completed in less than a year.
Within the next couple of months the organization is planning to complete the move-out from the psychiatric hospital when the East Wing expansion on the St. Joseph Hospital’s is completed.
Health Centre South offers totally different treatments for patients with different needs than the new mental health unit in the hospital will, Buckler said.
“(Here) you go home at night or you come in for an hour or you come in for your shift if you’re working as peer support or in some of the co-op businesses,” Buckler said. “The mental health rehab program (at the hospital) is 24/7 care, an inpatient program.”
