FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January
17, 2006
Health professionals
in the Southwest protest changes to services for the mentally
ill
LONDON - Mental health
professionals will picket on Wednesday to protest changes to
the specialized treatment services they provide to people with
a serious mental illness.
Date: Wednesday, January 18,
2006 Time: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Location: 268 Grosvenor St.
(outside St. Joseph’s Health Care), London
The Ministry of Health and
Long-Term Care plans to transfer 11 Assertive Community
Treatment (ACT) teams in the Southwest from hospital to
community agency control.
The 11 ACT teams provide
intense and individualized treatment to hundreds of people
with a severe mental illness, mainly schizophrenics, living in
the community.
“Community agencies have no
experience providing this kind of specialized treatment,” said
Dave Erskine, president of OPSEU Local 152, representing the
staff on the ACT teams. “We’re concerned that the high level
of care this high-risk population needs will no longer be
available to them.”
OPSEU members hope to raise
community awareness of Assertive Community Treatment. ACT is a
model of care in which an integrated team of professionals
provide treatment, rehabilitation and support services to
people with a serious and persistent mental illness. The
services are provided in the community, such as in the
client’s home.
The 11 ACT teams are: London I,
II, and III, Middlesex, Oxford, Waterloo, Elgin I and II,
Chatham-Kent and Essex I and II.
OPSEU represents the mental
health professionals on the ACT teams, including registered
nurses, registered practical nurses, social workers and
occupational, vocational and recreational therapists.
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For more information,
contact:
Dave Erskine, President,
OPSEU Local 152: (519) 631-8510 ext. 49500; (519) 765-8660
Rob Kinnear, OPSEU Staff Representative: (519) 649-7770
