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That the Board of Health for the
City of Ottawa Health Unit:
1. Receive, for
information, an update on Ottawa Public Health’s (OPH) work on mental health
and substance use health and key OPH actions for 2021-2022 to improve the
existing concerns and the impacts of the pandemic across the lifespan and
work with partners to measure and improve overall mental health, substance
use health, and well-being, as outlined in this report;
2. Approve the
guiding principles for a public health approach to substance use health, as
outlined in this report;
3. Direct the
Medical Officer of Health to share this report and data with the City’s
Emergency and Protective Services Department to inform their Community Safety
and Well-being plan which includes the following priority areas identified
through consultation: Mental Well-being; Housing; Financial Security and
Poverty Reduction; Gender-based Violence and Violence Against Women;
Discrimination, Marginalization and Racism; and Integrated and Simpler
Systems;
4. Direct the
Medical Officer of Health to share this report and data with Ontario Health
to inform their mental health and substance use health pandemic recovery plan
and request that Ontario Health address pressing mental health and substance
use health needs in Ottawa by:
a. Implementing a
dashboard that provides monitoring and reporting on mental health and
substance use health services, with consideration to wait times for
evidence-based mental health and substance use services and crisis responses,
with special consideration given to the collection of disaggregated data on ethnicity,
race, age, and geographical location;
b. Working with the
Ministry of Health, improving access to and quality of mental health care for
immigrants, racialized populations and low-income communities by ensuring
better access to health and social services including family physician
availability, such as within Ontario Health Teams;
c. Enhancing capacity
to address eating disorders amongst children and youth in Ottawa by
increasing availability of specialized treatment services in hospital and in
the community, including enhanced eating disorders training for clinicians in
hospital and community, and increased availability of medical consultations
to support community service providers;
d. Increasing capacity
and availability of specialized intensive mental health services in the
community for children, youth, adults and older adults, for example, with the
expansion of the Ottawa Bridges Program for the youth population;
e. Increasing capacity
of emergency departments and hospitals to identify and support people with
substance use disorders through the development of specialized addictions
medicine teams and enhanced substance use services and supports;
f. Increasing access
to culturally appropriate services by improving diversity of service
providers and increasing access to cultural competency and anti-racism
training for clinicians. For example, expanding availability of culturally
appropriate local mental health services such as those offered by the Ottawa
Newcomer Health Centre, Britannia Woods Community House, and Somali Centre
for Family Service;
g. Increasing access to
24/7 mobile mental health crisis response capacity, including an
Indigenous-led response for First Nations, Inuit, and Metis people in Ottawa,
and an Indigenous-specific Assertive Community Treatment [ACT] team.
5. Direct the
Chair of the Board of Health to write a letter to the Ontario Minister of
Health recommending:
a. In collaboration
with the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, identifying
next steps to address the increased incidence of post-partum depression and
challenges to children’s development as Public Health Ontario reports on
their evaluation of the impact of reduced home visiting programs for new
parents and families with young children during the pandemic;
b. Collaborating with
other ministries to develop a comprehensive Health-In-All-Policies approach,
as recommended in the Auditor General’s 2017 annual report. An example of
taking a health lens to policy development is to review the provincial
housing and homelessness programs to better meet the housing, mental health
and substance use health needs of Ontario residents;
c. Evaluating the impact
of increasing alcohol availability using a comprehensive approach to assess
health, social, and financial impacts, as it is the most used substance and
is known to cause harms to individuals, families and society;
d. Taking further
action to address the overdose crisis through health promotion and substance
use prevention strategies, overdose prevention strategies and harm reduction
services, pursuant to evidence outlined in this report.
6. Direct the
Chair of the Board of Health to write to the Federal Minister of Health to
request that the Government of Canada:
a. Integrate stronger
population health outcomes into Canada’s National Housing Strategy outcomes
measures to assess the strategy’s impact and effectiveness on improving
mental health and substance use health outcomes;
b. Limit alcohol
promotion and marketing, especially to youth, by applying existing policies
for tobacco and cannabis marketing as guides, to reduce harms caused by
alcohol;
c. Declare the drug
overdose crisis to be a national public health emergency and develop a
coordinated Canada-wide plan and associated funding to address overdoses,
with input and leadership from people with living experience, to support the
immediate scale up of prevention, harm reduction and treatment services,
including expansion of safer pharmaceutical alternatives to the unregulated
toxic drug supply based on evaluation of initiatives underway; and
d. Permit the simple
possession of drugs for personal use under the Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act based on meaningful engagement with key stakeholders including
people with living experience during each stage of planning, implementation,
and evaluation.
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