Ontario Connecting People Experiencing Homelessness in Peterborough to More Convenient Care
NEWS November 8, 2024
Peterborough – The Ontario Government is investing $1,030,202 towards Peterborough Street Medicine
this year to make it easier for those experiencing homelessness in the City of Peterborough to connect to the primary health care, mental health resources and other supports they need.
“Our government is taking action to improve access to key services that better reflect the needs of people and their families who are connecting to them,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “By investing in targeted services like Peterborough Street Medicine, we are breaking down barriers to accessing mental health and addictions care or primary care, providing more people with the right care, in the right place.”
“We have seen the need for help dealing with the opioid crisis in this community. I have strongly said since being elected that we need to find pathways to treatment” said Dave Smith, Member of Provincial Parliament for Peterborough-Kawartha. “Our community, like many across Canada, struggles with a mental health and addictions crisis. It tears families apart, affects businesses in our downtown, and takes the lives of too many of our neighbours. This is just one more step the province is taking to ensure the right level of care is available when it is needed, and further help reduce [emergency room] wait times.” Added MPP Smith
Peterborough Street Medicine (PSM) is a physician led group that received approval in early 2024 to enter a Homeless Shelter Alternate Funding Plan (AFP) agreement to support the homeless population in the Peterborough Region. PSM has ten affiliated physicians. (8 General Practitioners (GPs),1 Internal Medicine Specialist and a Psychiatrist.) These physicians are currently providing services across the City of Peterborough, including at the Brock Mission, Cameron House and at the YES Shelter for Youth and Families.
“Peterborough Street Medicine is grateful for the financial support of the Ministry of Health,” said Dr. John Beamish, Co-Lead Peterborough Street Medicine. “The funding has allowed a collective of physicians to integrate care of the unhoused and marginally housed into their already busy practices,” added Dr. Beamish.
The Homeless Shelter Agreement AFPs are non-enrollment models that were developed to support the provision of primary care physician services to marginalized and homeless populations that are largely uninsured and suffer from complex medical needs such as addictions, mental health, chronic diseases, and/or require palliative care.
Care is provided in homeless shelters, drop-in centres, community centres, addiction, and mental health facilities as well as mobile outreach units.
Through Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government is adding and expanding health care services in the community, making it easier for people to receive the care they need, where and when they need it. This includes building on the Roadmap to Wellness with additional investments, including in supportive housing to help provide housing and support for formerly homeless and low- and moderate-income people living with mental health and addictions challenges.
Quick Facts
- The Health Services for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness Initiative was established in April 2020 to address critical issues in the homelessness sector, which were widened by the pandemic, by providing access to essential outreach, support, and connection to necessary services for those experiencing homelessness.
- Mobile Indigenous Clinical Teams continue to provide culturally-specific primary care, psychiatry, pediatrics, midwifery, population health and community health worker supports led by Indigenous health professionals.
- In 2020, Ontario released the Roadmap to Wellness: A Plan to Build Ontario’s Mental Health and Addictions System that would invest $3.8 billion over 10 years. The Roadmap to Wellness is adding capacity to meet demand, fill gaps in the delivery of care, and will create a provincial infrastructure for a mental health and addictions system that connects primary, community, and acute care. It will create a system that will benefit all Ontarians.