The city's mental health services will be back in local hands by spring.
Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci says the provincial government is on track to implement a 2005 report that recommended the transfer of local and district community mental health and addictions programs.
Local community mental health programs such as Pinegate Addictions and Psychogeriatric Outreach Programs, as well as mental health clinics in places such as Walden and Espanola, will be governed by Sudbury Regional Hospital (SRH) by March, he says.
Right now, the programs are run by the Northeast Mental Health Centre (NEMHC). Community mental health programs in North Bay are being transferred to the North Bay General Hospital.
“The government is moving ahead with those recommendations,” Bartolucci says. “Some of those community programs have already been transferred. It doesn't happen all at one time. A lot of integration needs to take place.”
A total of 60 short-stay acute care mental health beds will also be transferred from NEMHC to (SRH) by March, says Bartolucci.
According to White's report, as community-based mental health programs improve, the number of acute-care mental health beds in the city may be reduced to 48, and the extra 12 converted into specialized longer-term beds.
Ken White, who wrote the report was appointed by the province at the end of 2004 to fix the system after psychiatrist Dr. Rayudu Koka complained his colleagues were leaving the city because Greater Sudbury and Manitoulin Island didn't have enough say in the governance of NEMHC.
“Everybody is happy with the situation now,” says Bartolucci.
