Agenda

Day 1 – October 21 (AMHO Members Only)

7:30 am – 8:30 am                  

Breakfast

8:30 am – 8:40 am

Land Acknowledgement

Elder Blu Waters

8:40 am – 8:50 am

Welcoming Remarks

Karen O’Connor, Chief Executive Officer, Addictions and Mental Health Ontario

8:50 am – 9:00 am  

Guest Speaker

Anna Greenberg, Chief Operating Officer at Ontario Health

9:00 am – 9:45 am

Presentation- Ontario Health’s Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence

Provincial Priorities in Action: Shaping the Future of Mental Health & Addictions

Danyal Martin, Director, Clinical Programs, MHA Centre of Excellence
Terra Cadeau, Director, Planning, Performance, Operations and Engagement, MHA Centre of Excellence

9:45 am – 10:00 am 

Morning Break

10:00 am – 11:30 am

Panel Presentation – Ontario Health Teams

Trailblazing Tomorrow: Navigating the Future of Mental Health & Addictions in Ontario’s Health Teams

Penny Marrett, Addiction Services Central Ontario, representing North York Toronto Health Partners
Nancy Chamberlain, Thunder Bay Counselling, representing Noojmawing Sookataging
Shawn Fisk, CAPSA, representing Ottawa West Four Rivers
Meaghan Cunningham, Director of OHT Implementation from Ontario Health

11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Lunch / Annual Meeting

1:00 pm – 1:10 pm

Guest Speaker

Hon. Michael Tibollo, Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions

1:10 pm – 2:25 pm

AMHO Communities of Practice 

Community Mental Health Services

Community Addictions Services

Supportive Housing 

Children and Youth MHA Services

2:25 pm – 2:45 pm                     

Afternoon Break

2:45 pm – 4:00 pm

AMHO Communities of Practice 

Community Mental Health Services

Community Addictions Services 

Supportive Housing

Children and Youth MHA Services

4:00 pm – 4:15 pm

Program Concludes

Day 2 – October 22 (Open to Public)

7:30 am – 8:30 am 

Breakfast

8:30 am – 8:40 am

Land Acknowledgement

Elder Blu Waters

8:40 am – 8:45 am  

Welcoming Remarks

Karen O’Connor, Chief Executive Officer, Addictions and Mental Health Ontario

8:45 am – 9:00 am  

Guest Speaker

Olivia Chow, Mayor of Toronto

9:00 am – 9:45 am

Keynote Speaker

Dr. James Makokis, Nehiyô (Plains Cree) Family Physician from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation

9:45 am – 10:45 am 

Opening Session – Health Human Resources

Strengthening the Frontline: Building, Recruiting, and Retaining a Thriving Workforce

David Lamb, Director of the Capacity and Health Workforce Planning Branch, Ministry of Health
Aseefa Sarang, Executive Director, Across Boundaries
Mark Macaulay, President and Chief Executive Officer, Salus Ottawa
Dr. Mary Bartram, Chief Executive Officer, Rideauwood Addictions and Family Services

10:45 am – 11:00 am

Morning Break

11:00 am – 12:15 pm

Concurrent Presentations

Resilient Health Care: Strategic Staffing and Workforce Well-Being Strategies

Sustaining Excellence in Mental Health Care

Innovative HR Strategies at Lanark County Mental Health (Lanark County Mental Health)

Presenters:

Tom McKenna, Manager of Mental Health Services

Melissa Kirk, Professional Practice Leader

• This presentation will focus on Lanark County Mental Health’s strategies for navigating the health human resources crisis by successfully recruiting and retaining specialized staff. It will cover their comprehensive rebranding efforts and the integration of digital tools that support staffing capabilities. Key topics include the recruitment of roles like occupational therapists, nurse practitioners, consulting psychiatrists, and master’s-level social workers, which have expanded their clinical scope and improved care quality. Learning objectives include examining recruitment and retention strategies, analyzing the impact of digital tools and service redesign, and reflecting on the role of organizational philosophy in promoting accessible care.

The Resilient Workplace

Prioritizing Health for HHR (CAPSA)

Presenter:

Ashleigh Hyland, Program Manager

• This presentation will address workforce health and well-being, emphasizing the creation of a positive workplace culture and health strategies to tackle Human Health Resources (HHR) challenges sustainably. It will highlight the often-overlooked issue of employees’ substance use health, noting its significant economic impact due to lost productivity. CAPSA will introduce an evidence-informed policy and practice toolkit to help organizations build capacity for safe and supportive workplaces, improving health and culture

Innovating for Inclusion: Comprehensive Strategies for Gender-Affirming Care and Equitable Health Data

Collecting and Applying Inclusive Data

Allowing for Equitable Access to Navigation and Services (Services and Housing in the Province (SHIP))

Presenters:

Nicole Abruscato, Central Intake & Access Manager

Shereen Rampersad, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Manager

• This presentation will focus on SHIP’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Anti-Racism (IDEA) Framework, aimed at leveraging diversity within their staff to enhance programs and services. Aligned with Ontario’s Connecting Care Act, the session will explore the collection and application of inclusive data to ensure equitable access to services. It will highlight using an equity assessment tool to identify and address gaps in navigation and service delivery, culminating in an action plan for intersectional health equity. Additionally, SHIP will demonstrate their EDI Dashboard (via Power BI), showcasing how ongoing data collection supports efforts to improve health equity outcomes.

Gender-Affirming Care for Gender-Diverse Adults

A New, Evidence-Based Quality Standard (Ontario Health)

Presenters:

Sarah McTavish, Clinical and Quality Standards Lead

Egag Egag, Registered Social Worker

• This presentation will focus on Ontario Health’s new quality standard on Gender-Affirming Care for Gender-Diverse People: Care for Adults, focusing on improving mental health care for gender-diverse individuals. It will highlight inequities in accessing mental health services faced by Two-Spirit, trans, and nonbinary people in Ontario and emphasizes trauma-informed, person-centred, gender-affirming care as crucial for addressing these disparities. Attendees will gain insights into accessing the quality standard and supporting resources, understand the importance of concurrent delivery of mental health and gender-affirming care, and learn about integrating these approaches to enhance overall care outcomes.

Building Futures: Creating Sustainable and Supportive Communities

Template Design for Affordable / Supportive
Housing Developments

(EllisDon Community Builders)

Presenters:

Marwan Kassay, Development Manager

Euan Nicol, Developmental Analyst

• This presentation will showcase EllisDon Community Builders (‘EDCB’) development of a Base Design, an independent, licensable, mid-rise template design aimed at reducing upfront design costs, timelines, and risk for housing providers on their projects.

Finding Success in Waterloo Region

(House of Friendship)

Presenters:

Jennifer Scott, Housing Director
Michele Kennedy, Addictions Director

• This presentation will focus on ShelterCare, a 24/7 emergency shelter program operated by House of Friendship. This program addresses the increasingly complex mental health and addiction challenges of the 100 men in their program, by providing a range of on-site health care and addiction services. After an extensive renovation of a former hotel, including trauma informed design, ShelterCare opened its doors in February 2023. At ShelterCare, we ensure that program participants have access to a wide range of health care services, including a 24/7 onsite addictions services team. Incredible outcomes are being realized with this approach.

Collaborative Care Models: Addressing Complex Needs Through Integrated Services

Interdisciplinary Team Collaboration in Support of Complex Clients Living with Physical & Addiction/Mental Health Issues

(WoodGreen Community Services)

Presenters:

Irina Sytcheva, Director of Mental Health, Addictions & Developmental Services
Stephanie Gordon, Supervisor of Comprehensive Care & Integration Specialist Team
Kendelle Labella, Project Manager

• This presentation will focus on the Comprehensive Care & Integration Specialist (CCIS) Team’s efforts to enhance care coordination for individuals with multiple chronic conditions and complex psycho-social needs in East Toronto. Collaborating across partner organizations like WoodGreen Community Services, Cota, and St. Michael’s Homes, alongside hospitals, the CCIS provides intensive case management to facilitate smooth transitions from hospital to community settings. The session will share insights on overcoming challenges such as data sharing, process development, and addressing socio-structural barriers to support clients effectively.

Strengthening the Delivery of Integrated Care in Specialized Mental Health Settings for Adults Experiencing Serious Mental Illness

(Centre for Addiction and Mental Health)

Presenter:

Dr. Vicky Stergiopoulos, Senior Scientist

• This presentation will discuss the findings from a qualitative study on “reverse integration” in Canadian specialized mental health settings, focusing on the physical health monitoring of individuals with serious mental illness (SMI). The study involved 65 participants, including patients with SMI, family members, clinicians, and healthcare administrators. It will explore stakeholders’ perceptions and experiences related to integrated care delivery, challenges encountered, and recommendations for delivering comprehensive healthcare to people with SMI in behavioral health settings across Canada.

The Broadview Program

An Integrated Care Model for Women with Substance Use Concerns (The Jean Tweed Centre)

Presenters:

Julia Bloomenfield, Director of Clinical Services
Kanchi Uttamchandani, Manager of Evaluation, Research & Quality

• This presentation will discuss the Broadview Program at the Jean Tweed Centre, an innovative service model offering gender-specific withdrawal management, residential treatment, and transitional housing beds in one location. It addresses the fragmented healthcare system by ensuring seamless transitions across mental health and addiction care, particularly for women. The program, located in Toronto’s Broadview neighborhood, includes 23 beds funded partly by the Addictions Recovery Fund and provides holistic, trauma-informed care. The presentation will highlight how this model eliminates wait times between care levels and promotes lasting well-being through comprehensive support services.

12:15 pm – 1:15 pm

Lunch

1:15 pm – 2:15 pm                   

Panel Discussion- Ontario Drug Toxicity Crisis

Crisis Point: Understanding and Responding to the Drug Toxicity Crisis in Ontario

Dean Valentine, Member of the Minister’s of Health’s Patient Family Advisory Council and Member of AMHO’s PWLLE Advisory Panel
Seamus Murphy, Deputy Chief, Cochrane District Paramedic Service
Hayley Thompson, Managing Director, Toronto’s Drug Checking Service and Ontario’s Drug Checking Community
Dr. Lisa Simon, Associate Medical Officer of Health, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit and Chair, Drug/Opioid Toxicity Crisis Working Group, The Council of Ontario Medical Officers of Health

2:15 pm – 2:30 pm

Afternoon Break

2:30 pm – 3:45 pm

Concurrent Presentations

Sustaining Success: The Role of Stable Housing

LOFT’s Back to Home Model

Supporting hospital transitions to community across life stages (LOFT Community Services)

Presenters:

Connie Cheung, Director of Supportive Housing Services
Zena Gopal, Director of Quality and Service Excellence

• This presentation will focus on LOFT’s Back to Home model, which supports individuals leaving hospitals without suitable housing. It integrates specialized 24/7 supportive housing with comprehensive mental health, substance use, dementia, and physical health supports. The session will share implementation experiences across different populations, highlight lessons learned, and recommend scalable approaches for supportive housing to ensure long-term community tenure.

Keyholders of Hope

Empowering Landlords for Supportive Housing Success (Services and Housing in the Province (SHIP))

Presenters:

Cory O’ Handley, Director of Housing and Service Innovation

Charmaine Williams, Housing Engagement Manager

• This presentation will focus on SHIP’s effective landlord engagement strategy aimed at securing housing units for individuals experiencing homelessness compounded by mental health and addiction challenges. Central to this strategy is building collaborative partnerships with landlords through personalized support and incentives. SHIP emphasizes fostering trust and maintaining ongoing communication to ensure landlords are equipped to provide stable housing solutions tailored to the unique needs of vulnerable populations.

Culturally Inclusive MHA Programs

Recovery College as a Peer-driven Means of Providing Culturally Responsive Mental Health Care

The Experience of Hong Fook Recovery College (Hong Fook & Ontario Shores)

Simone Arbour, Research Scientist at Ontario Shores

Erica Wan, Program Manager at Hong Fook

• This presentation will explore Recovery Colleges, which use peer-driven mental health education to empower individuals with lived experience. It will highlight their effectiveness in traditional mental health settings and discuss a case study focused on an Asian-specific Recovery College at the Hong Fook Mental Health Association. The session aims to outline how these colleges are developed and implemented, along with their impact on mental health education and support within diverse cultural contexts.

Transitional Age Youth (TAY) Program 

(LOFT Community Services)

Presenters:

Ashell Campbell – Case Manager

Amy Mathew – Peer Support Worker

• This presentation will focus on Culture & Calm, a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) psychoeducation group for BIPOC youth (16-29). Here, the youth can learn emotional regulation and interpersonal skills in either a drop-in or a closed group setting. It has an accessible design and co-facilitated by peer staff who brings their lived expertise in mentorship. Utilizing feedback from BIPOC youth and staff, Culture & Calm hopes to enhance access and delivery of culturally informed services. It recognizes that DBT was created from a Western viewpoint and needs to be made relevant to the experiences of BIPOC youth. The program offers a safe space to critically analyze and modify the DBT skills to fit the subjective cultural experience of participants. This presentation aims to describe the adaptations made by LOFT TAY program following Marsha Linehan’s original DBT framework. It will highlight a research-informed, low-barrier, peer-inclusive and culturally relevant approach to care.

Redefining Care: Integrating Harm Reduction in Shelters and Hospitals

Embedded Outcome Focused Harm Reduction

(Mission Services of Hamilton)

Presenters:

Greg Croft, Director of Addiction Services

April Szabo, Supervisor of Addiction Services

• This presentation will highlight the implementation of an Outcome Focused Harm Reduction Team aimed at reducing opioid-related harms in emergency shelters. The team utilizes current harm reduction best practices and addiction treatment interventions to collaboratively develop harm reduction plans with shelter clients. In addition to substance use goals, the team supports clients in accessing addiction treatment, housing, physical and mental health services, and family reconciliation. The team also works with clients at various stages of readiness for change and maintains ongoing engagement across different shelter settings and once clients transition to independent housing.

Changing the Narrative around Harm Reduction and Integrating Health and Social Systems for Better Outcomes

(St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton)

Presenters:

Kari Whitelaw, Clinical Supervisor

Heather Radman, Director of Addictions

• This presentation will focus on how the effects of COVID-19 compounded with the housing and drug toxicity crisis in Hamilton, presented new challenges in health and social systems. This session will highlight the changes in uptake of harm reduction support within a hospital organization and ways of making hospital spaces safer for people who use substances.

Bridging Gaps in Housing and Mental Health: Collaborative Strategies for People Experiencing Homelessness

Bringing Care to You

A low barrier and flexible approach to providing care for individuals experiencing homelessness (LOFT Community Services)

Presenters:

Sarah Collins, Associate Director of Mental Health and Homeless Services

Raisa Harnani, Registered Nurse

Ryan White, Program Manager

Jenna Davies, Program Coordinator

• This presentation will provide an overview of mental health and homeless services offered at LOFT’s Front St Hub, focusing on innovative programs like the Multi-Disciplinary Outreach Team (Outreach, TTC, Shelter/Hotel streams), Coordinated Access To Care from Hospital (CATCH), and Multidisciplinary Access to Care and Housing (MATCH) teams. These programs are designed to bring essential services directly to clients, reducing barriers to healthcare for those experiencing homelessness. Highlighted in the session will be the effectiveness of meeting clients where they are located, whether living outdoors, accessing hospitals, shelters/hotels, or drop-in sites. The approach emphasizes building trust through consistent, persistent support and guiding individuals through every stage of their journey from homelessness to housing and beyond, ultimately leading to improved outcomes.

Overnight Shelter Programs

Eliminating the Barriers to Achieving Housing Outcomes (Services and Housing in the Province (SHIP))

Presenters:

Erin Goodyear, Program Manager

Sarah Smith, Program Manager

• This presentation will focus on the Frederick Street Emergency Shelter launched by SHIP in Kitchener, emphasizing its innovative approach beyond basic shelter provision. The shelter prioritizes stability and dignity by offering wrap-around supports such as storage space, flexible contract stays, and intensive housing-focused case management. It has successfully secured permanent housing placements for residents by addressing complex needs, including specialized mental health and addiction supports. The shelter not only provides immediate relief but also aims to foster long-term stability and well-being among individuals experiencing homelessness in downtown Kitchener.

Homeless in Hospital

Using Data to Drive Housing Partnerships (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health)

Presenters:

Roslyn Shields, Senior Policy Analyst
Hinna Hafeez, Senior Policy Analyst
Kimberly Radford, Social Worker
Melonie Hopkins, Transitional Manager

• This presentation will review CAMH’s Alternate Level of Care Strategy and the components that have set it up for success. In 2012, CAMH and its partners created a systems approach to housing complex ALC patients. The importance of building and maintaining collaborative relationships with supportive housing providers will be highlighted. Using data as a core component of the ALC strategy will be discussed, as will the application of this approach to other homeless patient populations. Different patient group profiles will be presented, along with discussion about how CAMH and our partners can use this data to guide housing partnership development for patients before they become ALC.

3:45 pm – 4:00 pm

Program Concludes