CMHA North Bay and District relocation plan aims to make access easier for clients
The Canadian Mental Health Association North Bay and District (CMHA) is streamlining access to its mental health and addiction care programs through a major relocation project.
Adopting what the CMHA describes as a “campus model,” the goal is to improve the ability to access mental health and addiction treatment along the Main Street West location.
“Clients can come in off the street and have easy access to our services,” said CEO Mary Davis.
The relocation has been planned over the last four years since four social agencies -- Nipissing Mental Health Housing & Support Services, People for Equal Partnership, the North Bay Recovery Home and CMHA Nipissing -- joined together to form CMHA North Bay and District.
A 7,800-square-foot building on Main Street West will be the new hub for mental health and addiction care. The building was the site of a department store for decades and, more recently, a spa and salon.
“We do have a waitlist and that's something we are trying to work on,” Davis said.
The relocation has been planned over the last four years since four social agencies -- Nipissing Mental Health Housing & Support Services, People for Equal Partnership, the North Bay Recovery Home and CMHA Nipissing -- joined together to form CMHA North Bay and District. (Eric Taschner/CTV News)
“We do believe this will be helpful.”
This relocation starts Monday. The CMHA’s newly named Peer Connections drop-in centre moves from its current spot on Ferguson Street into the hub building. Operating hours will remain Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with entry via a side entrance on Fraser Street. Formal appointments can be made through the front door at reception.
Peer Connections offers various activities, groups and programs, both in person and virtually for clients.
Jason Corbett, CMHA North Bay and District director of operations, took CTV News on a tour of the new site Thursday morning.
“This will have all kinds of tables and chairs in this large space for when they play cards or they're doing, you know, different crafts and that kind of stuff,” Corbett said, pointing into a large empty room.
Second phase
The second phase will take place in mid-April. It will see CMHA’s main reception and all client meeting spaces for case management, trusteeship, and justice services moved down the street from its second-floor location at 176 Main St. West to the hub.
The new space includes group rooms, laundry and shower facilities, two kitchens, office space, a community room and individual meeting spaces for clients and staff.
“So if we’re doing financial planning with them, then we can show them the same screen,” Corbett said, showing off one of the one-on-one rooms.
CMHA North Bay and District is currently seeing between 150-200 client referrals a month from the community. That is why Davis the centralization is needed.
“For someone to be able to access services and navigate the system, it's much easier to have one door, one point of access for an individual,” she said.
The goal, CMHA said, is to make mental health and addiction services more accessible for those who require that support.
Davis said once the facility is fully up and running, CMHA will invite the community to an open house during Mental Health Week in May.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.