Last week, the
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) on Queen Street West
announced that its newly renovated facility will be home to a
Family Health Team (FHT), a healthcare innovation that brings together physicians, nurses, dieticians, social workers and other medical professions to provide holisitc health services to a community.
FHTs are a concept that the provincial government has focused on -- alongside
Nurse Practioner-Led Clinics -- as being a key part of how Ontario will deliver health services in the coming years, and the province has committed to opening 200, including
30 announced last week. The FHT is the first to be housed in a mental health and addiction facility.
"What makes these Family Health Teams so valuable is that each one is
developed with the needs of the community in mind," said Deb
Matthews, minister of Health and Long-term Care in her announcement.
Dr.
Catherine Zahn, president and CEO of CAMH, said it was exactly that community mindset that makes this so fitting, given the facility's overhaul as a central part of the community it sits in. "Locating a FHT here emphasizes the 'urban village' vision of CAMH's
Queen Street redevelopment project, strengthening the model of
community-based care for everyone in a welcoming and inclusive
environment," she said.
Dr. Zahn expects the facility to serve as a model for the rest of the province. "The
Queen West Village FHT will break new ground in providing primary
health care to the community of which CAMH is so much a part, and will
increase access to care for mental illness and addictions,
province-wide."
Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Michael Torres, CAMH; Office of Deb Matthews, Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
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