Gary McNamara, Warden of Essex County, said a mobile health clinic will help medical professionals better respond to residents in crisis in high-priority neighborhoods.
“I believe this is a model that many other areas of the province can look to,” he said.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones has seen variations of the idea working across the province.
“This one, frankly, is probably the most in-depth in terms of partnerships,” Jones said at the official launch of Windsor Essex’s Ontario Health Team mobile clinic.
“During COVID, we had a team going to these vulnerable communities,” said Claudia Den Boer, local high-priority community lead for the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA). “It became very clear that we had to keep going.”
Den Boer says EMS vehicles have been used during the pandemic to support vaccination, testing and other support in high priority communities. Given its success, his group was able to leverage community funding of $1.2 million received from the province to create the $400,000 mobile clinic.
“That way we could now become more self-sufficient and we would have our own vehicle to go to those communities to do that work,” she said.
The mobile clinic runs through the Windsor Essex Ontario Health Team (ESO) and will provide a variety of supports including mental health, addictions and dental care.
“We have 45 healthcare partners who share a common vision and mission to serve our community and provide access to care,” said Kristin Kennedy, CEO of Erie Shores Healthcare.
Neelu Sehgal, Windsor Essex OHT Outreach Director, added: “We are working with each community partner and leaders directly on site to see where those needs are. so we will try to occupy this need in the truck.
The clinic will have between five and seven employees for each trip and has been on the road before. During a recent 12-week soft launch, mobile clinic staff noted that some of the people seen were initially going to use the hospital emergency room for acute care.
“We see this connectivity. We’re able to provide those warm transfers to community partners, those referrals and we build trust in that community, so it’s very well received,” Sehgal said.
The mobile clinic will be in Brentwood for a two-day stay from Tuesday morning and will be parked at the Bridge Youth Center in Leamington on Thursday and Friday.
Check the Windsor-Essex OHT website for the next stops.
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