New Owen Sound addiction and mental health centre opening soon

Article content

Ontario Premier Doug Ford will open the new Brightshores Wellness and Recovery Centre in Owen Sound on June 7. 

Article content

Brightshores Health System takes possession of the repurposed former Bayview Public School next week.

Article content

Renovations began in fall of 2022 to create the centre, which will combine Brightshores’ inpatient and outpatient addiction and mental health services. 

The ribbon-cutting, for invited guests only, will take place June 7, when Michael Tibollo, the associate minister of mental health and addictions, and possibly Health Minister Sylvia Jones, are also anticipated to attend. 

Brightshores donors and other invited guests will get a sneak peek at the facility on June 17. A public open house will also take place that day, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The centre is at 615 6th St. ‘A’ East.

The next day, patients from Brightshores’ withdrawal management program will move from their 9th Avenue East building into the new facility.

Article content

“We are incredibly excited about getting this moving because it means an expansion of mental health services and addiction services in the region,” said Ann Ford, the president and CEO of Brightshores Health System, in an interview. “It’s an important piece. We know substance abuse unfortunately is still on the rise.” 

The $24-million centre will have 21 withdrawal management beds, 14 relapse prevention and treatment beds and 10 supportive studies for longer term stays — 45 beds in all. The project is “within budget” but its opening has been delayed due to delays in receiving such pieces as the air-handling unit, Ford said. 

About 65 full-time staff or the equivalent will work there, about 36 of whom were hired for the new facility, said Naomi Vodden, the director of mental health and addiction services at Brightshores, in an interview. New staff include those for recreational therapy, vocational skills training, spiritual care and some crisis services. 

Article content

The centre will include the Rapid Access Addiction Medicine Clinic, the Community Addiction Treatment Services, withdrawal management services, the Assertive Community Treatment Team, the Concurrent Disorders Case Management Team, counselling services, and psychiatrists will work there. 

Canadian Mental Health Association will supply meals for the wellness centre’s 45 patients through its Fresh Roots Cafe and Catering service. Brightshores’ Indigenous and social service partners will also be involved in the new centre. There will be an Indigenous healing room in the centre, for example. 

Vodden anticipates the centre will be full of patients within two months of opening. The nine-bed withdrawal management facility already has 21 patients squeezed into it who will move over to the new building off the bat, she said.  

Article content

Vodden said the centre’s is unique in that it combines inpatients and outpatients in the same building. “People are often not ready for treatment and those are the people we are not capturing right now,” Vodden said. That’s because if patients are ready for treatment and they attend withdrawal management, then stay a week to stabilize, they could still wait three or six months for treatment.  

By then, often they’re not ready for treatment anymore when the bed becomes available, she said. “This facility is trying to meet that need.” 

If there’s no withdrawal management bed, patients could still come to the wellness centre’s outpatient programming. Many mental health clients have substance-use problems too, which are especially difficult to tackle without support, Vodden said. The new centre will help do that, she said.

Article content

“These clients will come to see their workers and participate in programming. It might be simple at first, like volleyball, it might be mindfulness, but to give them exposure to a peer group, a community that lives without substances.” 

So, the centre will serve people who are both ready and not yet ready for change, Vodden said. Ford said that having services all in one place helps patients become familiar with where to go for help, like a “base that they can feel very comfortable with.” 

Brightshores has hospitals in Owen Sound, Meaford, Markdale, Southampton, Wiarton, Lion’s Head and withdrawal management in Owen Sound. It’s hoped and expected that having this wellness centre will take pressure off the hospital, from the emergency department, medicine units and the mental health floor, Vodden said. 

“We are tracking that. We are tracking the numbers of substance use in the emerg and in our other departments. We are tracking the repeat visits to emerg,” because it’s hoped those patients will go to the wellness centre for follow-up treatment when they’re in crisis, she said. 

Vodden praised the community support for the project and noted one of many examples. The Bluewater Quilters’ Guild made quilts and pillowcases for all the beds, she said. 

Article content