Mental health, addictions crisis centre expands to round-the-clock hours

A downtown centre for urgent addictions and mental health crises will now be open around the clock for intakes from first responders.

The Mental Health and Addictions Urgent Crisis Centre (MHAUCC), run by Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and the Canadian Mental Health Agency (CMHA), is expand its hours to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for intake from police and paramedics, the hospital and partners announced Tuesday. 

The centre currently offers walk-in services available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. But with the expansion to 24/7 operations, police and paramedics can bring people in anytime with the goal of "freeing up time to respond to priority incidents and reducing emergency room wait times," the hospital and partners said in a statement. 

When clients come to the urgent crisis centre, they will receive stabilization care in one of four available beds, and can stay there for 48 hours. Current walk-in crisis services — for people not brought for intake by police or paramedics — will remain available. 

"This is one more tool to enhance services, to get police and EMS back on the road where they belong quicker and to allow, ultimately, that patient or client to get the care that she or he requires with follow up," said hospital CEO Bill Marra. 

"This is a starting point. We need to ensure that there's more available after they leave here. And it's nice to be able to go to 24/7 because we're not locking the door at 8 [p.m.] ... saying 'sorry, we'll see you tomorrow.' It's 'what more can we do for you while you're here?'"

In the last six months of the year, the urgent crisis centre saw nearly 950 clients, the hospital says.  

The budget for the project is "well north" of $1 million annually, Marra added. It's being paid for in part with re-purposed funding from a pre-pandemic program that is no longer operational. 

Windsor police chief Jason Bellaire says he feels the service will make a big impact. 

"Being able to bring somebody who has agreed, in a moment of clarity to say, 'I would like to enter withdrawal management' or 'I'd like some certain services,' to have the ability to transport that person to this centre here and they immediately start to receive care."

Nicole Sbrocca is the CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association Windsor-Essex County.

She says the service, and others planned for the region such as the recently-announced Homelessness and Addictions Recovery Treatment (HART) hub, mean more ways for people to seek help. 

"This is one aspect of it, opening the doors 24 hours a day, seven days a week," she said. "The hope is that there's no wrong door of entry ...  and we'll get them to the correct end state to improve the long term outcomes in downstream supports that they need."

Marra said they eventually hope to offer walk-in services 24/7, but will use this period to look at the complexities of patients coming in and what the crisis centre can provide.