Over the past few years, I have witnessed hospitals and health service providers from across the province come together to work better as one health care system. I am extremely proud to share that time and again, the Waypoint team has stepped up to collaborate and provide leadership in mental health and addiction services, especially as it relates to supporting our hospital and community partners who have also been challenged by the pandemic, as we work together to reach and support people in real need of help and care.  

Waypoint was one of multiple partners who supported public health to open COVID-19 assessment centres and immunization clinics. We also supported our long-term care partners through the combined expertise of our geriatric medicine and geriatric psychiatry team in the Specialized Geriatric Service, expanded mental health services for families, children and youth, and launched Frontline Wellness, which provides free virtual counselling for healthcare workers, first responders and social service professionals. 

We’ve all read in the news the challenges that emergency departments and smaller hospitals across the province are facing even trying to keep doors open and beds staffed. Waypoint was able to step up and add to our existing 20 acute mental health beds, and we continue to operate 34 acute mental health beds, including the first psychiatric intensive care services in our region, for patients in Simcoe County, Muskoka and across the Ontario Health Central Region. We are hopeful that these beds will be made permanent as they provide an immediate solution to the unmet needs locally and regionally as the pandemic has affected many people’s mental health and strained an already challenged health system. We have also strengthened our physical health care services to support more complex patients with combined mental and physical health challenges here at Waypoint. 

We innovated in developing a virtual intensive day program to support people living with concurrent addiction and mental health challenges. Grounded in research evidence and incubated during the throes of the pandemic and its disruptions to service delivery, this new virtual program adds to our inpatient treatment program, thus expanding our avenues for meeting people where they’re at and making services accessible to people with different needs.

More recently, we expanded access to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) from three to five days a week. ECT is a safe and effective treatment and it can be a life-saving for patients who need it due to the severity of their illness or lack of benefit from other treatments, but it requires anesthesia and, when done in acute hospitals it usually uses surgical recovery spaces and nurses. By expanding ECT at Waypoint we are ensuring access to specialized care for our whole region and enabling acute care partners to focus on restoring surgical volumes and reducing wait times.

I’m excited to announce that we have just launched Waypoint’s new Urgent Outpatient Psychiatry Consultation service. Having worked in these types of programs for many years before my transition to Waypoint in 2019, I know from experience what a difference it can make