FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 31, 2006
Confidential report shows mental
health restructuring isn’t working: OPSEU
TORONTO - A
confidential report for the Ontario Ministry of Health cites
the lack of community services as the cause of delays in
discharging patients from psychiatric hospitals.
The March 2006 report,
prepared by the Deloitte consulting group, shows that mental
health care restructuring isn’t working. It was obtained
under a Freedom of Information request by the Ontario Public
Service Employees Union.
“Governments assured us that
services would be in place in the community when provincial
psychiatric hospitals were drastically downsized,” said
OPSEU President Leah Casselman. “This report shows that
promise wasn’t kept by the former Conservative governments
or the current Liberal one.”
The Deloitte consultants
examined three years of financial and admissions data and
the mental health programs at four hospitals that took over
provincial psychiatric facilities. Two-thirds of the 21
mental health programs profiled in the report had trouble
discharging patients because of the shortage of supportive
housing and specialized treatment programs in the community.
An analysis of the report
shows that individuals with serious mental illness who are
elderly, have an addiction, have come in conflict with the
law, or have a developmental disability, are the hardest hit
by the lack of services.
- Community programs have
limited capacity to absorb the volume of patients in a
timely manner;
- There are few long term
care homes with the capacity to care for these patients;
- Community programs lack
the specialized training and knowledge to support
patients.
“It is disgraceful that
almost 10 years into mental health restructuring things are
this bad out there,” said Casselman. “The McGuinty
government must place an immediate moratorium on further
restructuring until it fixes the problems in the system.”
The four hospitals profiled
in the report are St Joseph’s Health Care, Hamilton, St.
Joseph’s Health Care, London, Royal Ottawa Health Care
Group, Brockville and Providence Continuing Care Centre in
Kingston.
The Deloitte report can be
viewed at
http://www.opseu.org/bps/health/mental/deloittereport.htm
-30-
For further
information: Megan Park (416) 443-8888 ext. 8207
