Hospital CEO says support need to treat addictions
Limited community services leading patients to return to hospital: official
Drastic changes are needed to the way mental health and addiction patients are being dealt with in the overburdened health-care system, the president and CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital David Musyj told the hospital’s board Thursday.
“When patients are admitted for addictions or mental health issues here at Windsor Regional Hospital, when they’re discharged, within 30 days 20 per cent of the mental health patients return, 40 per cent of those patients suffering with addiction issues return,” Musyj told the board during his monthly report.
Musyj was summarizing the first report of Premier Doug Ford’s Council on Improving Healthcare and Ending Hallway Medicine released at the end of January. “One of the major reasons, and identified in the report, is when they leave the hospital, there is a limited amount of community services available, especially in a timely fashion,” Musyj said. “So the chances of them being able to leave the hospital and have access to mental health and/or addiction services available within 30 days is limited. So that means one in five of the mental health patients return, almost half of the addictions patients return. “It’s just not there.”
If those patients could be assisted before they believed they needed to go to the hospital, it would make a huge difference, he said.
“How can you integrate all these services so, from a patient’s perspective, when they have to have access to the system, maybe they don’t even have to go to the hospital, maybe they can access these systems to avoid the hospital,” Musyj said.
“Don’t wait until they get to the hospital, provide these services in advance.”
Musyj said the increased prevalence of new drugs such as opioids and crystal meth over the last decade have heightened the problem and are stretching hospitals’ budgets.
“And we can’t institutionalize all the patients because unfortunately the addictions patients, a lot of times we save them, and as soon as they get their two feet on the ground, they leave,” Musyj said.
“We can’t force them to stay. But without having some voluntary help immediately available, they have nowhere to go.
“So unfortunately they turn to their immediate lifestyle and return to us.”
Musyj said he believes the current accessibility of drugs is “that much greater and then addiction rates are that much higher. ““It’s just a vicious cycle out there,” he said.
“But ignoring it and hoping it goes away — it’s not going to go away.”
Musyj stressed that this is not a Windsor issue, an Ontario issue, nor a Canada issue, it is a worldwide issue.
“And the world is struggling with it,” Musyj said.
“And right now no one has the magic wand for a solution but clearly one of the immediate solutions is (making) immediate community support available and helping individuals that want to have that help.
“If it’s there immediately, there’s a better chance that they’re going to take advantage of it." he said, "(Rather) than being told ‘You know what?, we’ll see you in eight weeks, we’ll see you in two months’ — you know, but the grace of God, hopefully they’re alive in eight weeks.”
Musyj said he is looking forward to the recommendations from the Premier’s Council in a followup report next month.
“And sometimes, they even say in the report, opening more inpatient beds isn’t the solution a lot of times,” Musyj said. “You just keep making the problem worse. So it’s looking at how can we become more efficient.”
Clearly one of the immediate solutions is (making) immediate community support available and helping individuals that want ... that help.