Vulnerable people will soon be able to access essential health services at five new shelters in the city as part of a pilot project, Health Minister Eric Hoskins has announced.
Hoskins made the announcement at the newly-opened Hope Shelter in Leslieville on Tuesday afternoon. The 60-bed facility will be one of five new facilities in Toronto where healthcare services will be offered. The other facilities are expected to open later in 2018.
The province is funding the initiative, though it is not immediately clear what the cost will be.
Hoskins said that the services offered will include “mental health supports, chronic disease management and wound care.”
“It is surprising that this is happening in 2018 and didn’t happen years or even decades before but that being said I think this is such a valuable solution that will be massively impactful,” Hoskins said. “Despite Ontario having one of the highest life expectancies in the world there is no denying that socio-economic status plays a major role in the way that you access our healthcare system. There are incredible barriers for many, many individuals and no one can explain that better than someone who has experienced homelessness.”
Hoskins said health care providers, shelter operators, the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network and city staff will work together to develop and implement the pilot project over the next few months.
He said that the goal is to “turn traditional service delivery on its head” and find better ways to target people who may otherwise fall through the cracks.
“We know that most shelter don’t have a regular family doctor, we know that most shelter users often face stigma when trying to access traditional health services and they might have difficulties getting to something as simple as a scheduled appointment so we need to rethink the way that Ontario’s health care system serves its most vulnerable community members,” he said.
The new shelters where healthcare services will be offered will have a combined 300 beds once all of them are operational.
Speaking alongside Hoskins, Mayor John Tory called the program a “start” but added that he wants to see it “rapidly” expanded.
He said that a lack of access to healthcare services is one of the things that makes it challenging for the homeless to move on to more permanent housing.
“I visited I don’t know how many (shelters) since the beginning of this winter and without exception people will tell me about their healthcare issues,” Tory said. “They will say that when they are in the shelters they are not having access to the kind of support that they need and it makes it virtually impossible for them to move to housing that is not in the shelter because they need that support (to do so), so this is a start.”
