By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
On Monday, November 25, 2024, a special announcement was made to a crowd consisting of the press and curious, concerned citizens at Joseph Brant Hospital in the Susan and Robert Busby Learning Centre. This broadcast is one that will greatly and positively impact the quality level of the City of Burlington’s mental health care, whose headquarters is centred around Joseph Brant. With Premier Doug Ford in attendance, the Ontario government happily announced that substantial funding will be directed towards the organization of a new mental health unit at Joseph Brant Hospital. Joseph Brant Hospital is one of the beneficiaries of an ambitious course of action to allocate $50 billion towards health care throughout the province of Ontario over the upcoming decade.
This planned new unit at Joseph Brant Hospital will be designed to address deficiencies and implement major improvements in mental health and addiction services in the Halton area. According to the City of Burlington website, the invested funds will be delegated to expanding the physical space of the existing unit along with areas of special and urgent need. These include an outpatient (or at-home) program for struggling adult patients, upgrades to the extensive care that adults receive while being treated in the hospital’s inpatient psychiatric ward, and new programs for the benefit of children and youth who are having trouble managing their mental health. Joseph Brant Hospital also intends to use funds as a means for developing more extensive and better-staffed crisis intervention programs.
MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament) Natalie Pierre spoke out at the announcement at the hospital on November 25. Since her election as MPP in the year 2022, she has been actively leading a campaign to improve the City of Burlington’s standards of mental health treatment. Pierre kindly agreed to speak on the subject of the future mental health unit and the impact it will have on Burlington’s future:
“The actual investment by the provincial government is to redevelop the existing mental health and addictions unit… into a modern state-of-the-art mental health treatment centre,” Pierre says.
Pierre notes that while there is a mental health and addictions unit already at the hospital, it will be upgraded to better serve the community, which has seen an uptick in mental health concerns over the past four years. “The whole idea is to really support the mental health and addictions needs of the community here in Burlington and the surrounding areas. Joseph Brant has a very strong relationship with the Hamilton hospitals and with the hospitals in Halton Region as well. So it will primarily focus on people in Burlington and the surrounding areas.”
“We’re adding new programming, we’re adding new beds, and we’re upgrading the existing kind of infrastructure and facilities,” Pierre continues. “The effect that it will have for residents in Burlington is early intervention, timely treatments, and best-in-class mental health and addictions care that allows people the opportunity to receive treatment.” Early interventions are key in minimizing the impact of mental health issues, but mental health services have been strained with the enormity of the need, so investments like this are critical.
In terms of best-in-class mental health and addictions care, Pierre elaborates. “It will have a better-equipped environment. That means things like private rooms and treatment spaces, both for inpatient and outpatient. Right now, the outpatient services for the mental health and addictions unit are located in an adjacent neighbouring building. By bringing everything into one space under one room, it will improve clinical flow and patient care. It will also allow nurses, doctors, social workers, and psychotherapists to work together so we have an interdisciplinary team of professionals coming together to deliver the exceptional care that I think the hospital is best known for.”
Interdisciplinary teams are better equipped to provide comprehensive care for patients. For often time-strapped doctors, having additional sets of eyes who will communicate their observations on a patient can result in a more complete understanding of a patient’s needs. For patients with complex needs, their treatment plan may span multiple disciplines or medical specialties — an interdisciplinary team may offer more cohesive and effective care for these patients.
The Province of Ontario’s Newsroom informs readers that the plans for the mental health unit are in the early stages of development, with close collaboration between the Ministry of Ontario and Joseph Brant Hospital, and that a construction schedule is currently being arranged.
