THUNDER BAY - People searching for mental health or support services now have a single access point after four local health organizations partnered on a new outpatient referral service.
Access Point Northwest, a single point of contact for healthcare providers, is a collaborative effort between Alpha Court, The Canadian Mental Health Association of Thunder Bay, St. Joseph’s Care Group, an the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
“We came together realizing that our system can be very difficult to navigate and we wanted to make it easier for people that need to refer to services and people who need the services themselves,” said Nicole Latour, executive director of Alpha Court.
The tool is designed to simplify the outpatient referral process. People seeking mental health service, supportive housing, case management, or chronic pain management can contact Access Point Northwest, where they will answer a series of questions about demographics and the type of service they require, and the patient will be pointed to the services available to them.
“It’s also a promising source of data so we can look at where some of the gaps are in services and help inform future service provision and program planning,” Latour said.
Latour added there are more than 35 organization providing these services in Thunder Bay and it can be difficult and overwhelming for patients to know what service will meet their needs.
“So what we want to do is make that easier for people,” she said. “We want them to enter one door and we will refer to them to the most appropriate level of care.”
It will also benefit health care providers by streamlining referrals that are received and reduce duplicate referrals.
“It was very easy for us to use it and our health care providers to use it,” said Juanita Lawson, CEO of Northwest Community Health Clinic. “There are a number of organizations out there who our clients would benefit if they become involved in this program as well.”
But the primary purpose of the new access point is making finding the right care easier for patients.
“We do hear from many individuals that having to tell their stories over and over again can be very traumatizing, and sometimes it makes people not want to do that when meeting someone for the first time,” Lawson said. “We think this is a great endeavor and we’re really thankful we can offer it.”
Latour added there are no current plans to expand Access Point Northwest to the rest of the region but she said there is the capacity to add additional organizations.
“We hope in the future it becomes a larger project,” she said.
Access Point Northwest is available online at www.northwestaccesspoint.ca or by calling 807-624-3482.
