City must play central role supporting needs, mayoral candidate says
Toronto – Mitzie Hunter, mayoral candidate, marked Mental Health Week by issuing a five-point plan to address our mental health and addiction crisis.
Hunter’s five-point mental health and addiction plan includes:
“Health care is primarily the responsibility of the province, but at a time when our leading organizations are sounding the alarm, the City can and must play a more central role in supporting the mental health and addiction needs of our people,” Hunter says.
“Other mayoral candidates are throwing up their hands saying they can’t do anything. I am saying we can and we must help our own people. It is a crisis. Human dignity demands we take action. Leadership makes it happen.”
Here’s how Hunter’s plan works:
o Providing advice to the Mayor, City Council, and the Medical Officer of Health
o Helping guide the City’s response to the Mental Health and Addiction crisis.
o Initially launched in 2020 to respond to the Mental Health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, participating agencies provided critical mental health services to people including seniors, persons with disabilities, and young persons with complex mental health needs.
o Relaunching provides a lifeline to residents in need as well as data and insights about the ongoing needs of service users, which in turn inform council policies.
o Taking a prevention-focused approach that is evidenced-based, including the voices of persons with lived experiences.
o Works toward mental health and violence prevention
o Provides increased core operating funds to non-profit and charitable organizations for the next three years
o Investing in the long-term sustainability of these organizations helps ensure long-term wellness of our city's youth.
o Ensures better care and service coordination between hospitals, primary care organisations, developmental service agencies, community mental health organisations, and City-funded programs and services including shelters, case management and supportive housing organisations.
Hunter’s plan builds on her previous, already-announced homelessness and youth mental wellness plan that includes the creation of five new Housing Outreach Program Collaboration (HOPC) teams and 2,000 supportive housing units, 10 per cent of which will be earmarked for persons with developmental disabilities experiencing homelessness.
The cost of the mental health and addiction plan is $5 million. It is part of her fully-costed, comprehensive budget plan which will be issued before voting begins in June.
“Helping the City’s most vulnerable, persons experiencing mental illness, and those struggling with substance use challenges, starts by making sure our programs and services are evidence-based, collaborative in nature, and singularly focused on recovery,” Hunter says.
“I bring fresh eyes and new solutions to do something meaningful for our people experiencing mental illness and suffering from addiction.”
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Contact:
Charmain Emerson charmain@culturedcommunications.ca
Remarks by Mitzie Hunter announcing her five-point plan to address mental health and addiction crisis