Ontario Election 2007: A strong provincial role

Ontario Election 2007: Focus on Addiction and Mental Health

Our addiction and mental health systems have changed dramatically over the past 30 years. As in other areas of health care, advances in technology and medication have significantly affected treatment. Unlike in other areas of health care, however, the provincial government has systematically set out to reform the mental health and addiction sector through provincial policies and the reallocation of resources. Governments have devolved former provincial facilities to the community, and invested in an integrated system of community-based care. From Building Community Support for People (1987) and Putting People First (1993) to Making It Happen (2000), through to the funding commitments for community mental health made in the 2004 budget and the transformation agenda, the Government of Ontario has a decades-long stake in the continued evolution of community-based addiction and mental health programs.

The regionalization of health care through the creation of LHINs is radically transforming health care decision making. We support this transformation; we are convinced that the most effective addiction and mental health services must be locally integrated. But we believe that a strong provincial government and a strong Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care are critical to leading this effort. The Government of Ontario must assert the provincial interest in continued mental health reform; must carefully assess province-wide access to addiction and mental health services; and must protect its investment in community mental health care and addiction services by building the capacity of community-based agencies to provide the supports demanded by clients, families and communities, and by the government itself.

The experience in other jurisdictions where regionalization has been implemented suggests that addiction and mental health funding is easily overlooked, and clients and their families too often forgotten.(5)

That is why the government of Ontario must:

• provide strong policy leadership to ensure that regionalization protects the provincial direction in services for people with addiction and mental illness
• ensure that LHINs are accountable by directing them to report publicly on access to addiction and mental health services, and directing them to continue to build service capacity in this sector
• convene a provincial network of addiction and mental health clients, service providers and government officials to continue the momentum toward a comprehensive system of supports for people with addiction and mental illness.

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