M-DOT: Reaching out to the community – one person at a time

Program designed to help the hardest to reach makes strides in its first year

In order to better respond to one of Toronto’s populations in most need, CAMH is participating in a program led by North Toronto Support Services to reach out to homeless people and ultimately guide them towards care and affordable housing. The Multidisciplinary Outreach Team, called M-DOT for short, was started in December of 2006 and is part of the Streets to Homes initiative led by the City of Toronto. The M-DOT program conducts street assessments for those without homes and connects them to proper health and community services. What makes this team unique is that it offers an interdisciplinary staff, including nurses, social workers and psychiatrists, as well as other outreach workers. Allowing them to connect with the hardest to reach of clients who are severely and persistently mentally ill.

The city-funded program has a van travelling throughout the GTA to help those without access to proper care and treatment. The team consists of CAMH psychiatrist, Dr. Jorge Soni, Mike Pett, addictions specialist with the Concurrent Disorders program, alongside several other clinical and outreach workers from St. Michael's Hospital and the Fred Victor Centre.

CAMH's Dr. Jorge Soni, with the M-DOT team, brings care to those most in need, where they need it
Photo: Globe & Mail by Tibor Kolley

Typically, the health of this population has been long neglected. These health issues compounded by the prevalence of substance use problems and concurrent disorders make this population especially vulnerable. The M-DOT team acts as a liaison between those who often have both physical and mental health problems, and the health care system. The biggest barrier to their treatment seems to be trust. In some instances, it takes several months for the M-DOT team to gain the trust of their patients. In the short time that they have been up and running some of the clients of M-DOT have experienced enormous improvements in their physical, mental health and quality of life.

The M-DOT program has assessed dozens of clients, organizing income support, facilitating connections to healthcare services and housing. While many in the community continue the cycle of helplessness, the M-DOT team refuses to accept this, instead helping those that a system has all but forgotten – one person at a time.