Belleville City Council received a delegation from the co-chairs of a coalition of multiple groups about their action plan to address the opioid and mental health crisis in Belleville.
Brandi Hodge of the United Way HPE and Lisa Ali of CMHA HPE delivered a presentation to council calling on them to support their action plan while also giving an update on their proposal to the Ministry of Health.
The coalition is made up of key service partners such as CMHA Hastings Prince Edward, Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, Quinte Health, Hastings-Quinte Paramedics and Belleville and Quinte West CHC, as well as enabling partners such as Hastings County, Loyalist College, United Way HPE and Hastings Prince Edward Public Health.
Hodge and Ali outlined the different collaborative efforts of the partners, as well as the community, to come up with their plan.
The plan was outlined per the following slide:
Screenshot from delegation to Belleville City Council of plan addressing opioid and mental health crisis.
To conclude their presentation, Hodge and Ali said that Hastings and Prince Edward counties must stand apart from Ontario’s process of the HART hub that was announced in August due to the unique circumstances the area has when addressing the crisis.
They requested that the proposal be funded separately from the plan laid out by the province and asked for a letter from municipal leaders identifying “historical underfunding of our region and the human cost of these gaps through deaths, overburdened healthcare and first responder services.”
Also outlined were some of the immediate actions being taken by Hastings-Prince Edward, including modelling the community approach, balancing community safety and safe care, raising $5 million to buy a building and renovate it to become a hub of new services, and repurposing funding to do outreach and emergency department diversion services.
Council approved receiving the delegation but made no further decision.
