A project designed to get quick help for people suffering mental health issues has worked out so well in Chatham-Kent that it is being expanded.
The Erie St. Clair LHIN's Dawn Maziak says the Rapid Assessment Intervention Team allows doctors to put patients directly in touch with mental health care.
With 24 hours that client would receive a contact from the team and we've asked the team to provide an assessment in the client's home within 72 hours," she says. "The treatment can be having a nurse consult, or a therapist and we also have personal support workers that act as coaches, the is a psychiatrist that is attached to the team."
She says the team has reduced the number of mental health visits to emergency departments.
She says part of the reason is that it helps people who might not have qualified for care in the past, and that it moves quickly.
The LHIN will provide $438,450 in annual funding as part of the program's expansion.
