March 3, 2020
Statement from Ontario’s Child and
Youth Mental Health Lead Agency Consortium Following the Release of the Ontario
Ministry of Health’s Roadmap to Wellness
The 31 members of Ontario’s Child and Youth Mental Health Lead Agency
Consortium (LAC) acknowledge the Ontario Ministry of Health’s effort to begin
the process of redesigning Ontario’s mental health and addictions system with
the release today of Roadmap to Wellness:
A Plan to Build Ontario’s Mental Health and Addictions System.
Following a careful review of the strategy, LAC
members are concerned that Roadmap to
Wellness contains little to nothing new for children’s mental health nor
does the strategy propose the level of additional funding investment needed to
meaningfully enhance the delivery of improved services for children and youth
living with mental illnesses and addictions. Further, LAC members believe that
implementing the measures proposed in Roadmap
to Wellness will not result in creating equitable and immediate access to
mental health and addiction services.
Lead Agencies have urged the Ontario government for
new funding to support a comprehensive strategy for Ontarian children and youth
and their families in need of mental health and addiction services and
supports. Given the imminent tabling of the 2020 Ontario budget, the LAC calls
upon the Ontario government to uphold its election commitment to invest in new,
annualized funding for mental health and addiction services, particularly in
the areas of reduced wait times and the expansion of overall supports and
services for children and youth, including the care and treatment made
available to Indigenous and Franco-Ontarians children and youth.
The Lead Agency Consortium is committed to the goal of continually improving child and youth mental health and addiction services in Ontario so that children and youth and their families receive the right services for their unique needs at the right time and in the right place. Lead Agencies have both the capacity and the expertise to act quickly and effectively so that new funding investments will deliver a system of high quality, timely, evidence-based, cost-effective child and youth mental health and addiction services that are locally-responsive and client centered.
To read the press release from the Ministry of Health, click here: https://news.ontario.ca/mohltc/en/2020/03/ontario-unveils-plan-to-build-mental-health-and-addictions-system.html