August 4, 2011
Submitted by Devon MacFarlane, project lead, Regional Complex Concurrent Disorders Program
Clients and staff at the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction (BCMHA) recently celebrated their win of a 2010 IPAC/Deloitte Sector Public Sector Leadership Award.
The award recognizes individuals and teams who have dared to take their organizations in a new direction in the pursuit of better outcomes. To this end, BCMHA has transformed the way that people with complex current disorders receive treatment in BC and helped ease the costs to public safety, enforcement, emergency departments and public health.
“The Centre provides comprehensive care to people with concurrent, severe mental health, physical health, substance use and behavioural problems,” said Heather Hay, director of BCMHA. “To address this population, the organization advocated for these clients and developed a program to treat the person and all of his or her symptoms and issues under a single roof.”
BCMHA came to fruition in just four months with the full support of two provincial ministries – the Ministry of Health and the Ministry responsible for Housing. Since its opening in 2008, BCMHA has worked closely with BC Housing to develop housing options for this population. The BCMHA also supports the provincial government’s 10-year Mental Health and Addiction Strategy.
More than 325 people have been admitted to the BCMHA since it opened, and 128 clients have completed the program and transitioned to supportive housing.
“We are seeing better outcomes for many of our clients, who have severe persistent mental illnesses, are poly-substance users and often suffer from physical illnesses too,” said Dr. Michael Krausz, the UBC/Providence Health Care Leadership Chair for Addiction Research, and medical director of the BCMHA and the VCH regional program for concurrent disorders.
The IPAC/Deloitte Sector Public Sector Leadership Award program acknowledges outstanding leadership within federal, provincial, territorial and municipal levels of government, as well as in health care, educational and not-for-profit organizations across the country.
“What the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction is doing is a testimony to bold vision, courage and commitment to make change happen,” said Dalton Truthwaite, Deloitte’s Health Leader for BC. “The Burnaby Centre has worked successfully to bring resources together to provide a much needed service to citizens who are “looking for a new and fresh start in life.”
The July 29 celebration of the award win included a showing of the Centre’s video-based awards submission and several musical performances by current clients.