In June 2019, a long-time coming project in the city of Edmonton finally opened it’s doors (pun intended). This collaborative care model focuses on providing 24/7 access to mental health and addictions support. The service itself is located within the Royal Alexander Hospital, which enables resource sharing which enables the integration of knowledge between the entities (the traditional hospital and Access 24/7) (Horgan, 2019). The #onedoorYEG program, also known as “Access 24/7” is run by an interdisciplinary team of medical professionals including mental health therapists, addiction counsellors, social workers and psychiatrists. Access 24/ 7 provides a range of urgent and non-urgent addiction and mental health services including service navigation, screening, assessment, referral, consultation, crisis intervention, outreach and short term stabilization.
“[People seeking mental health services] lose their voice and the ability often to advocate for what they need,” [Beaudrap] said. “Having all the resources under one roof and one door for people to go to, it’s a valuable alternative path for people to take.”
Catherine de Beaudrap, patient advocate (Edmonton Journal, 2019)
This program was designed for community-dwelling Edmontonians as a one-stop shop. The push for this initiative from Alberta Health Services and private donors indicates there is positive policy climate to begin prioritizing mental health. There is no explicit reference to working with older adults, which could be a gap in this particular model. However, this could be amended by promoting staff training in working with the unique needs of the older adult population.
References:
Edmonton Journal, Cook, D. (2019, June 17). Centralized 24-7 site for mental health services opens at Royal Alex. Retrieved from https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/centralized-24-7-site-for-mental-health-support-opens-at-royal-alex
Horgan, S. (2019). Collaborative (integrated) mental health care. [Online]. Retrieved from https://onq.queensu.ca/d2l/le/content/321165/viewContent/1868389/View
Mental Health Policy for Older Adults 