Getting help should be easy: CAMH Annual Report 2005

CAMH Annual Report

Access to addiction programs and mental health care is difficult. It can often be hard to co-ordinate services effectively in a system that relies both on hospitals and on a broad range of community programs and agencies.

In the General Psychiatry Program's new Consultation, Assessment, Triage and Support Program (GPP/CATS), a team of staff, called liaison clinicians, helps guide new clients through the sometimes-overwhelming array of emergency, assessment and short-term follow-up services.

The liaison clinicians draw on many services, inside and outside of CAMH, to ensure that clients receive the best and most co-ordinated treatment and support possible. Depending on individual needs, a new client may be referred to one or more of CAMH's specialized programs or linked to a community agency.

To help make this happen, GPP/CATS is developing links and partnerships with a wide range of mental health practitioners across the province. Because CAMH provides services to a diverse population, the team is especially interested in developing partnerships in the area of ethno-specific services.

Internally, GPP/CATS has also been spearheading specialized diversity training for staff. This training has been designed to increase front-line clinicians' confidence in cross-cultural practice, by supporting them with the knowledge and skills to better understand and manage socio-cultural issues -- and offer culturally competent care-in the clinical setting.

Working groups to develop, implement and evaluate the training include staff from GPP/CATS and from other areas of CAMH, such as Addiction Programs; the Diversity Programs Office; Education and Publishing; the Office of Professional Practice; Culture, Community and Health Studies; and Social Prevention and Health Policy Research.

GPP/CATS has also been involved in developing two other partnerships: The ER Hospital Alliance Partnership, which links five GTA hospitals in a network of full-service mental health and addiction emergency rooms and offers clients and their families emergency care closer to home; and PASS, a project to develop a coordinated access system for community-based mental health support services in North York and Scarborough.

Lorri MacIntyre, GPP/CATS Client: I have worked with a number of care providers, all of whom were very empathetic. They have done an excellent job of integrating my care and linking me with appropriate follow-up services and resources. This has played a significant role in my recovery.

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