Inpatient Shift to the Community

The 1997 restructuring directives also called for an overall reduction in the number of specialized mental health care beds St. Joseph’s provides in this region above and beyond the number of beds transferring to regional hospitals. This reduction of beds is based on the provincial policy to shift care, wherever possible, from an institutionalized model where some patients could spend long periods of time, often years, within the walls of a mental health facility to living productively in the community with proper support and resources.

Successful integration into community living, ties into the recovery philosophy of care. It means individually assessing each patient as they move toward rehabilitation and when they are ready, shifting them into successful community living programs with community treatment, housing and support, backed by inpatient and outpatient specialty hospital services and crisis care if needed.

Recovery, for people who are living their lives with a severe and persistent mental illness, is not defined by the absence of the illness (as some individuals may always live with mental illness). For these people, the recovery approach means helping them to face the struggles of daily living in a dignified way. For example, some individuals may be unable to sustain full time jobs and require help to obtain disability aid and other assistance. For this reason, social and economic challenges also often accompany mental illness. Care plans might include teaching an individual to manage a budget, take their medication, or setting them up to live in an assistive or group housing setting. It could mean coaching and encouraging them to seek employment and participate in community life. A recovery focus at St. Joseph’s is multidimensional and includes care for the whole person- body, mind and spirit, aligning with our vision, mission and values: to advocate for those who are vulnerable and without a voice and to make a lasting difference in the quest to live fully.

“Mental health is a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his own community.”
~Mental Health Commission of Canada

The transformation of the mental health care system in Southwest Ontario includes the shift of 70 beds out of the overall number of hospital beds and an increase in services to community agencies. This change, part of the Provincial directives, will happen in collaboration with community care partners and  the Southwest Local Health Integration Network (SWLHIN).

• This shift will include the reduction of 70 inpatient beds, which will occur in three phases
• The phases are to be completed by 2014, before the opening of the new specialized mental health care facility in London
• The first phase of this inpatient shift included the reduction of 21 beds and was completed in the fall of 2011

In order to ease the transitions patients will make from hospital to community, St. Joseph’s invested in a Transition Care Team. This team has been in place since the summer of 2011 and has successfully contributed to the transition of patients into the community.