Oshawa mayor calls on province to build emergency mental health and addictions ward amid public health crisis

Oshawa’s mayor Dan Carter criticized the Ford government’s latest provincial budget for failing to address health care funding. Mike Walker reports.

Oshawa’s mayor is calling on the province to provide funding for an emergency mental health and addictions ward at Lakeridge Health, saying the city is in a “public health crisis.”

Speaking at a press conference on Friday morning, Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter spoke of the “drug crisis” impacting his municipality, pointing to addiction and mental health as contributing factors to the issue.

The mayor spoke of Thursday’s shooting near Oshawa’s downtown core as an example of the “lawlessness” taking hold of the municipality.

“This event of two individuals being shot on the cusp of our downtown saddens me tremendously,” Carter said.

Two people were sent to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries following the shooting, though the exact circumstances surrounding the incident have not been made clear and no connections to drugs have been made. However, the mayor continued to express how saddened he was that the “drug crisis continues to affect thoes that are most vulnerable” despite the city’s best efforts, and pointed to their contributions through the primary care outreach and Welcoming Streets programs and the Refuge Youth Outreach Centre as some examples.

According to the Oshawa mayor, the number of vulnerable individuals who live in the municipality has increased more than tenfold since April 2020, going from about 45 people to more than 500—and as such, Carter says the city lacks the resources to be able to adequately care for them.

“We do not have the expertise, we do not have the sources to be able to deal with this, but what I want to say today is this is not a lawless society,” Carter said, adding that there will be no tolerance for those who incite violence or fail to abide by the law in a way that infringes on the public’s safety or takes advantage of vulnerable communities.

“I am committed, my council is committed, our team is committed here are city hall to be able to address it the best possible way we can.”

As for Durham Regional Police’s efforts, Acting Deputy Chief Ryan Connolly said they’re committed to maintaining a safe environment for the community but said the issues surrounding public health “require multi-agency intervention in order to appropriately address the cause and make a meaningful impact.”

“We also understand that people are addicted to drugs, especially Schedule 1 drugs—fentanyl, crystal meth, cocaine, any type of opioid—very addictive drugs, and it leads to a path that’s not a great path,” Connolly said.

“But more importantly, we’re focusing on the individuals that are preying on the vulnerable people in our communities, which includes people who are addicted to drugs, human trafficking victims. These are the worst criminals of the worst because they exploit people who are suffering from addiction or having difficulties in their life.”

Carter said he was hoping during the province’s budget announcement on Thursday that Premier Doug Ford would have allocated funding for a specialized mental health and addiction emergency ward at Lakeridge Health in Oshawa—something the mayor says he presented to the premier about 15 months ago.

“This is utilizing an existing space, converting it to an empath program, where all mental health and addiction patients would go into that environment, and they would be treated within 20 minutes. Right now, our police officers and EMS people could wait up to 13 hours in our emergency ward for individuals to be able to seek the type of help that they need,” Carter said. “This was a partnership that we were looking forward to and, to my knowledge yesterday, we missed that opportunity.”

In a release published in April regarding a partnership between Lakeridge Health and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), CAMH said, on average each year, Lakeridge Health sees more than 100,000 mental health visits from adults, more than 12,000 visits from children and youth and more than 14,000 to its emergency departments related to mental health and substance abuse. Across Canada, one in five people will experience or be impacted by mental health illness and addictions issues, according to CAMH.

“I am a recovering alcoholic and drug addict of 34 years. What I can tell you is that compassionate intervention works,” Carter said.

Carter noted the province had already recently invested in a similar ward at Guelph General Hospital, which will be able to assist more patients immediately with mental health and addiction services as soon as it opens, and was hoping the province would green light a similar hub for Oshawa.

“Premier, please, please allocate the funds necessary for the Lakeridge emergency mental health and addictions ward. It will make a significant difference, it will save lives and families depend on us to do everything we possibly can to save their child’s life,” Carter said.

A spokesperson for the ministry of health said the province boosted funding for community-based mental health and addiction in Oshawa by four per cent in its newly-announced budget, adding that is a “clear signal that support isn’t coming, it’s already here.”