Newmarket resident Anthony Basciano has waited a while to see mental health services in his community improve.
The 25-year-old, who has struggled with depression and a panic disorder, said getting help through publicly funded services has been a challenge and wait times are long.
But Basciano said he is glad to see a new facility promising to make things better: a central mental health hub now progressing in Newmarket on Yonge Street.
“It’s very long overdue,” he said. “It should have been there a long time ago. But I’m glad they taking the initiative having it here.”
After years of effort, a new mental health hub in Newmarket is finally on the horizon. The provincial government announced in July that it would be building the hub and putting it out to tender come the fall. Canadian Mental Health Association York-Simcoe CEO Rebecca Shields said it could be open by the first quarter of 2026.
The concept is to construct a centralized place where people can access the mental health and addiction services they need in the community. Providers will partner to connect people experiencing a crisis with care in the right place rather than in hospital emergency departments. The hub will co-ordinate police and paramedic service dropoffs, as well as referrals from primary care and walk-ins.
The CMHA is spearheading the provincial project, along with community partners.
“We are really excited,” Shields said. “We think this innovation is going to fill a necessary gap and really get people access to necessary care.”
The concept of the hub has a long history. Shields said the idea first came about a decade ago. She said various groups could see the need for better mental health care in the community. That included the two parents who established the Bully Free Community Alliance, Bessie Vlasis and Gwyneth Anderson.
“This hub will service our community, including our children and youth. Lots of great work ahead, but together a community can move mountains,” the alliance said on social media.
Shields said many parties came together to discuss solutions about a decade ago, including hospital CEOs, police, paramedics and the Central Local Health Integration Network.
“People came together to go through a process to talk about what are the gaps in the system and what we should explore,” she said, adding that CMHA was then asked to put together a proposal for care.
Drawing on examples from abroad, the CMHA led a massive consultation process from 2016 to 2018, Shields said. The hub concept was formalized, with CMHA winning out in a process from the LHIN to be the lead agency. CMHA then received a $200,000 planning grant from the province in December 2020 to continue the work.
The local CMHA has been hard at work since that time, going through every needed step to bring the hub to fruition, Shields said.
“We have been working through each stage of planning through the Ministry of Health capital planning branch,” she said. “We have been going through each stage of their due diligence process … We had to meet each step of that requirement along the way.”
Part of that process included actually finding a location for the site. Shields said they had to evaluate multiple locations on the market that could potentially meet the project needs. Ultimately, they opted to lease land from a private company for the 17255 Yonge St. location.
It has taken some time. Shields said part of that is because this is not a model that has been done in the province before.
“For the ministry, they have to do extra due diligence to ensure we’re spending the taxpayers' money wisely. That is their job,” she said. “A lot of people worked really hard to come together to advocate. There is clear evidence and research that diverting people who do not need to be in acute care centre improves outcomes."
Southlake Regional Health Centre executive vice-president of clinical services and chief operating officer Derek McNally said there is a need for additional mental health resources here as York Region continues to grow.
“Southlake delivers leading-edge mental health care to hundreds of patients every year, and we’ll be able to bring that care even closer to home by working with our partners in the community,” McNally said. “We’re proud to support the Canadian Mental Health Association of York and South Simcoe in their work to build a new mental health hub that will increase access to comprehensive mental health care in Newmarket and surrounding areas.”
But not everyone is supportive of the hub. Richmond Hill resident Kathleen Mochnacki and some other advocates have been pushing for years for supportive housing for more complete care of those facing severe mental health issues in the community, such as schizophrenia. She said she does not think this hub model is the best course, particularly without good enough supports available once they leave the hub.
“What they’re doing is building a building that’s going to have to have a bureaucracy to run it and it’s going to just address short-term stays. So if you have an addiction problem, you will not be able to stay long enough,” she said. “There’s very few services out there. There’s very little in terms of supportive housing. Community services, there’s always line-ups.”
Basciano said it is difficult for low-income people to get the mental health help they need and he hopes the hub can make a change.
“I hope it can make a difference,” he said. “So no one is struggling here in Newmarket no more, and (people) don’t feel like they have nowhere to go.”
You can get updates on the project through https://cmha-yr.on.ca/about-us/hub-project/
