October 21, 2016
Congratulations to our members Nipissing Mental Health Housing and Support Services and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton for making the Honour Roll of the Minister’s Medal Honouring Excellence in Health Quality and Safety, and to our memberLOFT Community Services for receiving a Poster of Distinction Award.
The awards were presented October 20 at the Health Quality Transformation Conference, Health Quality Ontario’s (HQO) annual conference.
Nipissing Mental Health Housing and Support Services was recognized as part of the team-based honour roll for the North Bay Transitional Housing (NBTH) program. The NBTH program and its cross-sectoral partners provide two permanent, high support housing residences for people with clinical and case management needs, as well as a Harm Reduction Home pilot project for people with chronic alcohol addiction.
The housing programs have greatly improved the quality of life for people with mental health and addictions issues. In addition, the programs have gleaned significant system savings by keeping individuals in their community, as well as reduced hospital and psychiatric admissions, and reduced emergency room visits.
St.Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s Mobile Crisis Rapid Response teams (MCRRT), in partnership with Hamilton Police services, were also recognized on the team-based honour roll for the Minister’s Medal Honouring Excellence in Health Quality and Safety. The model partners a police officer with an experienced mental health crisis worker and is unique in that the team is dispatched and responds to 911 calls as first responders. The MCRRT model has spread across the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN, with many community partners and agencies now involved.
The model has seen significant positive outcomes, including significant diversion of people from emergency rooms compared to police-only response, connecting more individuals in crisis with community-based services for follow-up, and improving police to hospital transfer times.The model has provided people with timely access to care in the appropriate settings, addresses inequities related to social determinants of health, and reduces the stigma and criminalization of people experiencing a mental health-related crisis.
The abstract for their poster presentation, Implementation of the Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team: LHIN Wide Spread of a First Responder Model was also recognized with an Abstract of Distinction Award in the Supporting Innovation and Spread of Knowledge category.
LOFT Community Services received the Poster of Distinction Award in the Ensuring Technology Works for All category. Their poster, Leaping with LOFT: Enhancing Collaborative Care for Residents of LOFT Bradford House, highlighted LOFT’s work in partnership with Central CCAC and Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) to enhance collaborative care for residents of LOFT Bradford House.
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