January 31st Weekly Update

Ontario Expanding Mental Health Services for Children and Youth in Every Corner of the Province

The Ontario government is investing $4.75 million to expand the “One Stop Talk” virtual “walk-in” counselling program to connect children, youth and their families with more convenient and timely ways to access mental health counselling no matter where they live.

“Our government is making it easier and more convenient for children and youth in every corner of the province to access mental health care,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “This program offers modern, convenient options for youth to connect to help in ways that they’re used to communicating.”

The “One Stop Talk” service offers convenient ways to talk to a clinician by phone, video conference, text and chat without an appointment. The program began as a pilot in November 2022 with six participating mental health organizations and is now being expanded to additional organizations and their waitlisted patients. When fully implemented, the program will eventually be available to all children, youth and their families.

“Through our Roadmap to Wellness, we are focused on fixing our complicated and disjointed mental health and addictions care system once and for all,” said Michael Tibollo, Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. “Significantly expanding our network of Youth Wellness Hubs is one more way we’re creating a system where Ontarians of all ages have convenient access to the highest-quality mental health and addictions supports, when and where they need them.”

Ontario’s Roadmap to Wellness plan – the province’s mental health and addictions strategy – has so far provided $525 million to use innovative solutions to improve the quality and access to mental health supports while shortening wait times and removing gaps in service. The plan is built on four central pillars – improving quality, expanding existing services, implementing innovative solutions and improving access – that are designed to work together to support the delivery of the services people need, where and when they need them.

With more than 12,000 new nurses registering to work in Ontario last year – a record breaking year – and another 30,000 nurses studying at a college or university, the expanded Learn and Stay grant will continue to increase the number of health care workers providing care to people, closer to home.

“We know the status quo isn’t working, so we need to move forward with bold initiatives to add more health care professionals in Ontario and especially in rural and remote communities,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “Expanding this grant beyond nursing, to include two additional health care roles in high demand will help ensure that Ontarians, no matter the size of their community, will receive the care they need in their communities.”

With new “As of Right” rules, the Ontario government will allow health care workers registered in other provinces and territories to immediately start working and caring for people in Ontario.

“As we connect people to more convenient care, we need to be bold, innovative and creative,” said Premier Doug Ford. “With our new “As of Right” rules, Ontario is the first province in Canada to allow health care workers from across the country to immediately start providing care. That’s the kind of innovative solutions that will cut down unnecessary bureaucratic delays and help bring reinforcements to the frontlines of our health care system.”

The government will introduce legislative changes in February 2023 that, if passed, will allow Canadian health care workers that are already registered or licensed in another Canadian jurisdiction to practice in Ontario immediately, without having to first register with one of Ontario’s health regulatory colleges. These changes will help health-care workers overcome bureaucratic delays that have made it difficult to practice in Ontario.

“Our government is making health care more accessible for Ontarians, which means recruiting more health care professionals to bolster our health care system and making it easier for them to start working,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “A highly-skilled health care worker from British Columbia or Nova Scotia shouldn’t have to pause their career or face barriers to practice here in Ontario.”