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Mental Health Care

picture of a woman sick in bed
General Information

Mental Health Care at Scarborough Health Network

Scarborough Health Network provides mental health care services to meet the unique needs of individuals experiencing mental illness.

These include inpatient and crisis services, as well as outpatient programs that help patients transition with greater ease from hospital to the community and to reduce the stigma often associated with mental illness. We also have support and social recreational programming for individuals and families affected by severe and persistent mental illness.

Our community-based focus emphasizes the importance of helping patients remain in the most appropriate environment (home or the community) to achieve their optimal level of well-being.

Services

Our Services

Rapid Access Addiction Medicine Clinic

The Rapid Access Addiction Medicine (RAAM) Clinic offers fast access to quality care for people living with alcohol, opioid, or other drug-related addictions. Services include medical treatment and same-day counselling services without a doctor’s referral. The clinic is staffed by SHN physicians, a dedicated RN, and specialized addiction counsellors.

What to Expect

  • Assessment of substance use disorders and review of treatment options
  • Medications for alcohol, opioid, and/or substance use disorders
  • Overdose prevention education and take-home naloxone kits
  • Referrals to community-based addiction support services as needed
  • Management of alcohol and opioid withdrawal

Referral Form

Visit Us

GENERAL HOSPITAL
3050 Lawrence Avenue East
Crockford Pavillion

We are open every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, by appointment, between 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Contact Us

  • Call: 416-431-8269
  • Fax: 416-431-8291
  • Email: RAAM@SHN.CA

Inpatient Mental Health provides a full range of mental health care services to individuals living with mental illness and who require hospitalization. Our interprofessional team provides inpatient care at our Birchmount and Centenary hospitals.

What We Offer

  • A patient/family-centred approach to care
  • A collaborative interprofessional team approach to care planning and treatment
  • A strong commitment to ensuring access to services is simple and effective for Scarborough’s diverse population
  • Psychiatric intensive care
  • Seniors’ mental health
  • Adult acute mental health

Acute Inpatient Unit

The acute inpatient unit offers assessment and treatment for individuals over the age of 18 who are experiencing mental health issues that cannot be treated safely on an outpatient basis. Part of the acute mental health unit includes a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Download the PICU brochure.

Clinical Liaison

Consultation and liaison services are offered to medical and surgical inpatients at both the Birchmount and General hospitals. If there is evidence that a medical or surgical patient may be experiencing a mental health issue, the medical/surgical treatment team may request a consultation with a psychiatrist and follow-up from a mental health care clinician.

This program is expanding to include group therapy, in addition to the individual therapy already available, for patients receiving care in the Chronic Disease Management and Cancer Care programs.

Medical Psychiatry Unit

The medical psychiatry unit offers assessment and treatment for individuals over the age of 18 who have both mental health and medical issues and require active treatment. Inpatient treatment includes direct interaction with nurses and allied health team members, family meetings, group therapy, and medication management.

SHN provides mental health care services within the community to support people with mental health conditions to live more stable and independent lives.

Assertive Community Treatment

The Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team at SHN is comprised of mental health care professionals who provide patient-centered, highly individualized treatment, support, and rehabilitation to individuals with severe and persistent mental illness. ACT is distinguished by its interprofessional team approach and for providing treatment in the community.

The ACT team’s goals are to:

  • Facilitate the community living and psychosocial rehabilitation of individuals experiencing mental illness
  • Lessen or eliminate the debilitating symptoms of mental illness each individual client experiences and to minimize or prevent recurrent acute episodes of the illness
  • Meet basic needs and enhance quality of life
  • Improve functioning in adult social and employment roles and activities
  • Increase community tenure
  • Support families

Housing Programs

SHN offers two housing programs to provide safe, affordable, and supportive housing for patients with serious mental illness and who have been, or are about to become, homeless.

25 Neilson

This 30-unit residential complex provides housing and care to people with mental illness, allowing many of them to get off the streets, or out of sub-standard housing. The housing complex is located in Scarborough, nearby SHN Centenary hospital.

This program is the result of a unique partnership between all three levels of government—the federal government’s Supportive Community Partnerships (SCPI) initiative, the City of Toronto, which provided leased land; and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, which contributed initial funding.

On-site residential counsellors at 25 Neilson provide rehabilitation counselling and life-skills training for day-to-day activities, such as banking and cooking. Additionally, partnerships with the Canadian Mental Health Association, Jewish Vocational Services, and Toronto Public Health, enable the delivery of a wide variety or supportive programming. This includes peer and addiction support, job coaching, wellness, and smoking cessation, all of which help these residents to successfully live independently. Residents here are able to receive clinical care at SHN for a variety of mental health issues.

Gatesview House

Located on a quiet, residential street, Gatesview House offers permanent supportive housing for the seriously men­tally ill, who would often otherwise be homeless. It looks like any other family home and has been accepted into the neighborhood, because SHN’s staff have kept the community informed and involved in its development.

The house accommodates six adults—each with his/her own room, while sharing common areas, including the kitchen and living room. While turnover of patients is not frequent, people do make progress, become more independent, and move on.

Patients are referred to Gatesview by a physician, caseworker or from hostels. For more information, please call 416-208-0131.

Pathways

Pathways is a social recreational program for adults with serious mental illness and offers psycho educational groups, work activity, health and wellness teaching, leisure activities and a medication clinic.

For more information, please call 416-208-0131.

The Justice and Mental Health program provides services for patients with a mental health diagnosis or individuals who may require assessment and who have had involvement with the court system.

Comprehensive assessment, treatment and case management services are available for these individuals.

Our program provides support to the Metro Toronto East Detention Centre with regards to release planning. Staff provide an assessment and work with individuals to ensure they have access to housing and social assistance services in place. For referral information please contact 416-431-8230.

The Geriatric Mental Health Outreach (GMHOT) team at SHN conducts assessments and provides reports with recommendations for nursing home staff to help them manage clients who are presenting with concerning behaviours, including agitation, aggression, depression, resistance to care, psychotic symptoms or other indications of mental illness. The service is available to address the needs of clients and staff in the early stages of managing difficult behaviour in an attempt to avoid hospitalization.

The team, which includes two registered nurses and an occupational therapist and offers psychiatry services, visit nursing homes on a regular basis. The GMHOT program is associated with Psychogeriatric Resource Consultation Program (PRCP).

Referrals are accepted from the following Scarborough Nursing Homes:

  • Bendale Acres
  • Hellenic Home for the Aged – Scarborough
  • Kennedy Lodge Nursing Home
  • Midland Gardens Care Community
  • Mon Sheong Scarborough Long-Term Care
  • Rockcliffe Nursing Home
  • Shepherd Lodge
  • Tendercare Nursing Home Ltd.
  • The Wexford Residence
  • Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care – Scarborough McNicoll
  • Ehatare
  • Fieldstone Commons Care Community
  • Seven Oaks
  • Tony Stacey
  • Yee Hong – Finch
  • Rouge Valley Extendicare
  • Scarborough Extendicare
  • Craiglee

Referrals

Staff receive referrals from a designated person who acts as the liaison for the facility/nursing home. The designated person provides regular updates about the client’s status. Referrals must be sent with consent from the client or their Power of Attorney or Substitute Decision Maker and an order from the client’s physician. See referral form linked below.

Resources and Referral Forms

Referral Forms

Ocean eReferrals

We are now accepting Ocean eReferrals! For additional information, please email your Ontario Health East Deployment Team at contact@ereferralontarioeast.ca

Registering for Ocean

SHN, the Scarborough Ontario Health Team (SOHT), and Scarborough Family Physicians Network (SFPN) are working together to support healthcare providers in our community who may be interested in onboarding onto Ocean. Get started by completing the Ontario Health East online form.

Making a referral

Fax Central Intake referral form: 647-251-4740
Call for referral inquiries: 416-431-8135 (press 2 for Central Intake)

Fax non-referral forms

Non-referral forms and documentation include prescription requests, test results, and other correspondence received after a patient referral is made. Physicians can fax non-referral forms to the following locations for adult outpatient mental health programs:

Birchmount Hospital
416-495-2426

Centenary Hospital
416-281-7320

Community Mental Health Centre (1940 Eglinton Avenue East)
416-431-8233

PDF Referral Forms