Abstract
This letter is prompted by an Editorial and a series of articles in the July edition of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 1 describing innovative ways in providing Mental Health Services. Timely access to Mental Health Services in Canada remains a concern.
We wish to report on the experience at the Markham Stouffville Hospital’s Outpatient Mental Health Clinic (OPMHC) on its attempts to provide Mental Services in a timely fashion to a very diverse and growing community. The staff is committed to the notion that no patient being referred from our Community should wait for Mental Health Services. We have a unique staff complement augmented by two nurse practitioners with extensive mental health and addictions experience and two social workers as intake clinicians.
The program has 15 psychiatrists some of whom are part time, and some carry inpatients. All practice general psychiatry. Each psychiatrist sees one to two new outpatients each week. We also have a Child and Adolescent Program.
The program provides services in a variety of languages. In the first 6 months of 2019, the Adult program has received an average of almost 300 new referrals each month from family doctors.
Referrals to our Adult program are promptly screened by an administrative assistant. An intake worker then determines if the referral is urgent. Patients with postpartum disorders, psychosis, or suicidality are seen within days by a nurse practitioner or a psychiatrist. Other referrals are promptly assigned to one of several time-limited therapy programs including individual and group therapies or a day hospital. These are staffed by highly trained clinicians. Additional resources include a Crisis Service, Art Therapy, a Chaplain, Yoga, a Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Unit, a Saturday Clinic and Family Support Group. Patients also utilize the online program, Big White Wall. OTN is available.
The program is committed to meet the Mental Health needs of the community through a Multidisciplinary and Evidence Based Care Model while ensuring access to psychiatrists in a timely fashion.
This is unlike the situation described by Rudoler et al. 2 in other jurisdictions where access to psychiatrists is severely limited.
We actively monitor the response to our services.
Footnotes
Acknowledgment
We are grateful to Teresa Wong, Manager, and to our hardworking colleagues in the OPMHC in preparing this document.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
