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'The government stands by as mental health programs are being eliminated across this province.' - OPSEU.
Toronto (26 Jan. 2011) - Twenty-one employees at Liberty Housing and Support Services (LHSS) have been notified that the agency is shutting its doors on March 31, says the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE).
The union says the list includes 11 supportive housing workers providing rehabilitation services and transitional housing to people struggling with mental illness issues. The reason for the notices was given as financial constraint.
"Staff reacted in disbelief," OPSEU says. "The occupancy average was almost always at capacity and the need for service high."
OPSEU says the loss of 29 beds comes at a time when provincial mental health recommendations actually call for more supportive housing for people with mental illness.
LHSS has a contract partnership with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) to provide five beds for clients upon discharge.
“At some point someone has to have the courage to stop the hypocrisy,” says OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas. “We have government officials and mental health professionals lining up to denounce the reality that people with mental illness end up in our shelters and in our jails," Thomas notes.
"Yet the government stands by as mental health programs are being eliminated across this province.”
The closure follows on the heels of recent layoffs at the Regional Mental Health Care in London and St. Thomas as well as job cuts at Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences in Whitby.
Last year the Ontario legislature's select committee on mental health and addictions produced its final report for the provincial government. One of its recommendations called for additional supportive housing to support long-term and transitional needs for people with mental illness and addictions.
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