Ontario’s Mental Health Minister is urging the people of Bancroft to work on more “community-based” support programs to address addictions and homelessness issues.
Michael Tibollo was in town Tuesday, May 2 for a funding announcement and roundtable discussion.
He announced that the province will pledge another roughly $6.2 million to Hastings County to address homelessness. He also shared the story of how he once worked with a Toronto hospital that was seeing an increase in admissions of people, with mental health and addictions issues.
Upon study, the hospital found that about the same 250 or so people in its community contributed to about 15,000 emergency room visits to the hospital in a year.
Tibollo said that spoke to the need for more collaboration between the health care industry and social services, to deliver programs that uniquely meet the need of some people.
He acknowledged that the new funding will not be enough to end homelessness problems in Bancroft, but will be a start.
“Is it enough?,” he asked to those in attendance. “You all know the answer. No.”