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New Canadian Mental Health Association office opens in Orangeville

May 17, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Peel Dufferin branch has a new home in Orangeville.

The Association moved into a new facility located on Elizabeth Street and now has more room and new services.

The Association opened its doors on Wednesday, May 9, to give visitors a tour of the new facility.

“This is our open house. The space we have opened is larger than we had before and it’s designed to provide walk services in order to provide better services to this community,” explained David Smith, CEO of CMHA Peel Dufferin. “We have a new opioid addictions clinic that runs out of here. We have increased seniors, family, and court support staff.”

A new service, the rapid access addiction clinic, provides necessary help for those in immediate crisis.

“It’s an immediate access clinic for medical treatment of addiction issues. The focus is on treating cravings and withdrawal. It’s run by a couple of nurse practitioners plus psychiatry and pharmacy and front-line addictions workers,” Mr. Smith said.

The regular addiction clinic rotates between several sites in the region and is open in Orangeville on Thursdays.

Lisa Ali, is the senior director clinical services and strategy, and her job is to determine the strategy to help support clients.

“I support the organization around clinic strategy – how to support clients around our LHIN (Local Health Integration Network) to access and receive high quality services,” Ms. Ali explained as she offered a tour to visitors. “The space here is designed for ‘walk in’ so people can walk in if they need support and they can meet somebody right away.”

The facility has special accommodations for people who need the rapid access addiction clinic complete with medical room.

“We have two nurse practitioners – this room is for people who are in withdrawal from substances and they need that medical intervention to support their symptoms of withdrawal,” Ms. Ali explained. “They can come here and meet with the nurse practitioner. We also have counselling, community support and connections to primary care.”

With the new added space, the Association is able to utilize some of the rooms for training purposes.

“We’re starting to offer more and more training out here for clients and service providers as well,” explained Nisha Lewis, manager, communications and resource development. For instance we did trauma training here. There’s a real need out here and a real appetite for more training around mental health and addictions so that’s one of the things we’re hoping to offer here.”

The clinic is open daily Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The addiction clinic is open Thursdays with walk-ins and booked appointments.

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