Vision of System - Mental Health Commission excerpt from chapter 3 https://sencanada.ca/content/s...-e.htm#_Toc133223067
What will be different
Individuals with a psychiatric disability live in integrated housing that they have selected in their community; work in jobs and/or participate in meaningful activities that they have chosen; have positive relationships with their families; and have friends who rely on them for support and on whom they can rely.
Individuals have services and supports available that they have had a central role in developing, selecting among, and evaluating. These services and supports are focused on supporting people in their recovery processes in their local communities, and are delivered as close to home as and in the least intrusive way possible.
Individuals have access to a comprehensive, well-integrated and balanced range of community, ambulatory and inpatient services and supports, offered by both professionals and peers.
Services and supports are offered in the context of and are responsive to people’s economic, cultural and social situations, are based on the latest relevant knowledge and are oriented toward successful coping, empowerment, self-direction and recovery.
Efforts to change negative public attitudes and their resulting behaviours, such as discrimination, are in place in local communities and are working. Local community resources and the responsibility to include all citizens in community life are seen as an integral part of the community framework for support.
Users of services have the resources and authority to hold service providers and funders accountable for the quality of mental health treatment, services and supports they receive.
Individuals with a psychiatric disability are not defined by their disability or illness, are recognized for their strengths and are empowered and have the resources to define and live the lives they want to lead to the absolute best of their ability.
Source: Government of Ontario. (December 2002) The time is now: Themes and recommendations for mental health reform in Ontario. Final report of the Provincial Forum of Mental Health Implementation Task Force Chairs.
The key types of services that are required to make such a system a reality are presented in graphic form in the diagram “The Continuum of Care.” This diagram is drawn from one of the Ontario Mental Health Implementation Task Force reports (Toronto-Peel Implementation Task Force Report).[166]
This framework does not present a definitive listing and categorization of services and supports; those listed are not exhaustive but are illustrative of the services and supports that are needed. Thus the model should be regarded as one useful way of depicting the range and types of services and supports that are required in a transformed mental health system.
One advantage to this framework is that it is able to encompass the full range of services and supports, listed under three “levels of need” (first-line, intensive and specialized), with a fourth category that cuts across the three levels. This terminology moves away from commonly used terms that some associate with an overtly medical approach, i.e., primary, secondary and tertiary care. As discussed in Chapter 3, the Committee believes strongly that mental health issues should be approached from a variety of perspectives, only one of which is the “medical” model.
Each level of need is associated with a particular array of services and supports. People will usually receive most of their services from within a particular level, but they are not limited only to the services within that level.