FORT FRANCES – Any discussion on mental health needs to include addictions, a regional Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) administrator said on Bell Let’s Talk Day.
“We know that now we can’t separate addictions from mental health,” Charlene Strain, chief executive officer of the CMHA’s Fort Frances branch, said in an interview Wednesday.
“Addiction is within the DSM-5 (reference book on mental disorders), so it’s a diagnosable mental health condition.”
People with mental health issues are more likely than the general population to have substance use issues, according to the CMHA.
Strain said there has been great progress in “reducing stigma in regards to mental health issues” but “we have a long way to go to reduce stigma in regards to substance use and substance use disorders.”
People too often believe “substance use disorders are based on poor choices and maybe even criminal behaviours,” she said.
“In reality, substance use disorders and addictions are a health-care issue and addictions actually change the composition of the brain. We need a health-care response and we need to change our thinking from it being poor choices or behaviour,” Strain said.
Bell Let’s Talk Day, which is today, is aimed at facilitating conversations about mental health issues and raising public awareness.
Strain said she thinks the initiative by Bell Canada has had a “phenomenal” impact over the years.
While opioid addiction has impacted all parts of Ontario, the CMHA says the opioid crisis has hit the North especially hard.
Northern Ontario’s five largest cities had 60.1 opioid-related deaths per 100,000 people in 2022, more than three times the provincial average. There were 107 opioid-related deaths in Northern Ontario in the last three months of 2023.
“Outside of large cities in Northern Ontario, the situation is just as troubling,” Strain said.
“In the Rainy River District, emergency room visits due to overdose have increased 500 per cent since 2019, with the highest rates here in Fort Frances.”
CMHA services in the region include a “safe bed” program – “a 24-7 residential crisis facility for individuals who are in mental health or addiction crisis and involved with the criminal justice system,” Strain said.
“Referrals are made through our joint mobile crisis workers or our local OPP or Treaty 3 Police.”
The Fort Frances branch also has a peer support program and a peer support worker at its Rapid Access Addiction Medicine clinic on Victoria Avenue in Fort Frances, she said.
Besides Fort Frances, the branch operates locations in Dryden, Sioux Lookout, Red Lake, Atikokan and Kenora.
The CMHA’s Fort Frances branch can be reached at (807) 274-2347 for help.
