Prior to the pandemic, the newly opened Kenora Youth Wellness Hub had put in place a robust suite of in-person services which included primary care, sexual health, mental health, substance use, educational and employment supports, cultural and recreational programming, and service navigation support. Social distancing requirements and group size limitations meant that the hub had to close its’ doors and find creative ways to support the youth in this critical time.

The Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) is a brief mental health screener that can be used by health professionals and researchers, to reliably identify dysfunctional anxiety associated with COVID-19 and symptom severity. 

Family education and support is a significant factor in an individual's recovery from a first episode of psychosis. With COVID-19 restrictions in place, many have experienced isolation which has increased stressors among families who are supporting loved ones.

See how CMHA Thunder Bay's Early Psychosis Intervention Program is connecting with families during these restrictions to help reduce the feelings of isolation, provide resources for coping with increased stress, and providing further information related to the pandemic and illness. 

Covid-19 and Gambling in Ontario -- by Nigel E Turner, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Gambling Issues

During the pandemic, the Assertive Community Treatment Team (ACTT) at CMHA-Kenora was not able to safely see all clients in the office. Some clients may also have had challenges in self-isolating and/or sharing information required for COVID-19 screening. 

See how CMHA-Kenora's ACTT Team adapted their service to create a way to see clients safely while still maintaining both privacy and security during psychiatric consults. 

Before COVID-19, patients accessing the Georgian Bay Family Health Team's Collingwood After-Hours Clinic would wait to be seen in the corridor outside the clinic. Social distancing requirements made this problematic, so services needed to be adapted. See how the After-Hours Clinic adapted their service design to allow patients to access medical care while remaining in their own safe environment. 

The H-CARDD program was developed to address disparities in health status and health care access faced by individuals with developmental disabilities in Ontario, Canada. Individuals with developmental disabilities often have complex health care needs, experience difficulty in accessing appropriate services, and tend to encounter health care providers with little knowledge of how to support them.

McMaster University's Health Forum and the Rapid Improvement Support and Exchange (RISE) put together a rapid evidence profile highlighting documents related to "What pandemic-related mental health and addictions issues have emerged and what indicators and strategies can be used to monitor and address them, respectively?" 

The Royal College of Psychiatrists in the United Kingdom has put together  specific considerations you need to make when working with more vulnerable populations, such as older people, people who use drugs, with alcohol dependence, with intellectual disabilities, and pregnant women and those in the perinatal period.  Suggestions are included for community services, acute hospital services, inpatient services, children services, persons with lived experience, and pharmacological considerations.