Improving access to community addiction and mental health services through a multi-faceted approach.

In Alberta, barriers to accessing community mental health services have been highlighted by many independent and government sponsored reports as the province's number one health care challenge. Many Albertans face challenges when they need to access community mental health support for themselves or their loved ones. This often leads patients to either go to a Hospital Emergency Department for help, or to deteriorate in the community while waiting for services. If their symptoms become severe, they end up being admitted to hospital and receiving more expensive treatments. In this project, we propose to fix problems related to access to community mental health services for all Albertans using multiple approaches, including: 1) sharing the care of mental health patients between addiction and mental health providers and primary care providers to provide better care and improve communication between providers, 2) allowing 24/7 access to mental health support for patients experiencing mental health challenges to increase prompt access to mental health support and divert patients from hospital emergency departments, 3) providing day hospital treatments, 4) providing intensive case management for those who are acutely unwell but could be managed in the community instead of in hospital beds, and 5) introducing text message support and reminder text messages for patients waiting to access mental health services. We expect these initiatives to dramatically improve access to quality mental health services for all Albertans in addition to saving the health service millions of dollars. Community treatments are generally less expensive than hospital treatments and patients will be seen more quickly in the community. In addition, reminder text messages for appointments will mean fewer patients will miss their clinic appointments as has been shown in research.