Community partnerships behind Reach Out will provide better mental health and addictions services for residents in Oxford and neighbouring counties
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It’s one-stop shopping when you need it most.
Those needing help with mental health or addictions challenges across four areas in the southwest region can now get what they need by calling just one number.
Write this one down: 1-866-933-2023.
“Reach Out is a realization of our community’s expectations of us, to have a single…point of access for mental health and addictions supportive listening conversations, information resources,” said Oxford CMHA director Mike McMahon.
It’s been billed as a crisis line, but it’s much more than that. It’s a space for concerned parents and friends to call for advice. It’s a 24-7 resource to figure out your next step.
When you call, you’ll hear just one simple phrase. “Thanks for reaching out.”
And you don’t even have to call. Maybe you can only manage to type.
Reach Out offers support online via web chat at www.reachout247.ca, a crucial support for young people or those who are better able to express their challenges from a keyboard.
The new program serves Oxford, Elgin, Middlesex and London, thanks to a partnership between the Canadian Mental Health Associations in those areas and Addiction Services of Thames Valley, among others.
“We’re so proud to have partnered to be able to make this happen,” McMahon said. He noted that mental health and addictions health care systems tend to be "fragmented" by geographical boundaries, organizational mandates and other divisions.
But that’s no longer the case in this region.
Reach Out has been in the works for quite some time – over a year – and Karna Trentman was one of the key architects.
Trentman is the coordinated access facilitator at Addiction Services of Thames Valley, so she’s been working on bringing agencies together and forging a place for “one-stop shopping” for a long time.
“When somebody needs help, it’s really hard to figure out where to go. People will start one place, and they’ll get a page full of phone numbers,” she said. “Because they’re not feeling well in the first place, it’s easy to give up.”
Reach Out is different. You just call once – at anytime of the day or night – and a support person picks up the phone at ConnexOntario. That’s the provincial organization (with decades of experience in the mental health and addictions world) that patrols the phone lines, helping callers get to the resource they need.
“With this approach, it’s really, really, a no-wrong-door approach. Whatever door you knock on, it’s that service’s responsibility to make sure you get to the right place,” Trentman said.
In some cases the right place is a local crisis team.
Thanks to the multi-region partnership, if a crisis team in Oxford is out dealing with calls, a person can be linked through to a worker in Elgin, Middlesex or London.
Reach Out also offers a wealth of addiction services – something that hasn’t always been linked with mental health support lines.
“People can call at 3 a.m. Maybe they’ve decided ‘I’m going to stop drinking tomorrow.’ Something’s happened, and they feel really motivated. They can call the help line, speak to a worker, and book a callback from an addiction services worker (the next day). They leave the phone call with a direct connection to a treatment,” Trentman said.
There are already about one to two requests each day for callbacks, which is “quite a bit,” she added.
Reach Out launched at the end of August – the final transition happened in early September for Oxford – and already there are success stories.
On the first night the help line was active, London’s crisis team was especially busy. A caller was able to speak with a St. Thomas crisis worker by phone for nearly an hour, rather than waiting.
The same night, a distressed London resident was out walking and decided to look for the crisis centre.
“The Connex staff was able to be on the phone with them, help them physically navigate their way to the crisis centre, and walk them through the door, basically,” Trentman said.
The partner agencies believe that Reach Out is the start of something special.
“Everybody is really excited. I’ve gone to a couple meetings to talk about it, and usually when I’m done, people cheer,” Trentman said.
For McMahon, it’s about achieving more as a team.
“We’re just getting started. Now that we’re working together we’ll be able to look at data trends…and most importantly, community client engagement, their experiences, to let us know what’s next,” he said.
“We’re thankful that people can call Reach Out and we’re pleased to help.”