Toronto was looking for the best idea to make the city better and it turns out the top suggestion was from Montreal. <\/p>\n
Toronto was looking for the best idea to make the city better, and it turns out, the top suggestion involved helping people with serious mental health issues who are homeless.<\/p>\n
…and it\u2019s from Montreal.<\/p>\n
Cliff is 68 years old and has struggled with mental health issues for more than a year, and has been living on the streets. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had a terrible experience,\u201d he told CTV News.<\/p>\n
For the first time in a while, however, things are looking up. Cliff is part of the Prism program at the Welcome Hall Mission, which helps people like him by bringing psychiatric care directly into shelters.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the care provided in the hospital is not, let\u2019s say, designed well for the complex needs of this population,\u201d said Prism medical director at the Welcome Hall Mission, Vincent Lalibert\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Lalibert\u00e9 says the program fills a critical gap for people who often cycle between the streets and hospitals. <\/p>\n
Prism\u2019s goal is reintegration and helping homeless people move back into housing, often within months.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur research has shown that around 70 per cent of people who come to Prism, leave the program with housing,\u201d said Lalibert\u00e9.<\/p>\n
The model was first developed in Montreal in 2013 and has expanded across Quebec. <\/p>\n
It caught the attention of a doctor in Ontario.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I saw this Prism, I thought, that is a game changer,\u201d said psychiatrist David Heath. \u201cI immediately recognized it as a game changer.\u201d <\/p>\n
Heath\u2019s work focuses on providing care outside the hospital for people with complex mental health needs. He submitted the idea of Prism to the Toronto Star\u2019s \u201cOne Great Idea\u201d project, and it received the most public votes. <\/p>\n
\u201cHospitals are extremely expensive, and looking from persistence point of view, it\u2019s enormously expensive,\u201d said Heath. \u201cThat\u2019s what struck me about Prism is $5,000 to $7,500 per treatment episode dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heath is now working to bring the Montreal idea to Toronto.<\/p>\n
And as for Cliff, in just four months, he\u2019s gone from living on the streets to preparing for a place of his own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping to leave on the day of my birthday: February the 1st,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto was looking for the best idea to make the city better and it turns out the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392,22400],"class_list":["post-409679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-snowfall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}