'I just really wanted some help': Royal Alexandra Hospital to open 24/7 mental health hub

Blake Loatesknows the city's mental health system.

She is smart, well-educated, and spent years working as a psychiatric nurse in Edmonton. She also has bipolar IIdisorderand has been receiving mental health treatment since she was 14.

Still, there have been nights when the anxiety or paranoia would take over, when she knew her brain wasn't working as it should that she didn'tknowwhere to turn and ended up ina hospitalemergency room.

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"I just really wanted some help and was discharged because I wasn't in imminent danger of hurting myself but I didn't have the therapeutic services that I needed," Loates said this week.

"I didn't have the psychiatrist; I didn't have any sort of connections."

"I just really wanted some help and was discharged because I wasn't in imminent danger of hurting myself.- Blake Loates

At 37, Loates is now a photographer and prominent mental health advocate in the city. Her Facebook Messenger, Instagram feedand texts are often filled with people looking for help.

That's why she felt overwhelmedwhen she learned a24-7 central hub for mental health care and referrals is being created at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

"I started to cry. I was so excited. This is something that Edmonton needs, so desperately."

Access 24 hours a day

The Addiction and Mental HealthAccess 24/7 hub is scheduled to open later this year at the Royal Alex's Anderson Hall.

But the idea for the service has been percolating for years, saidMarkSnaterse, who leads the addictions and mental health program forAHSin Edmonton.

Patients and their families have long toldhealth bureaucrats they've been passed from one service providerto the next, having to telltheir stories multiple timesbefore finding the right program, but sometimesgivingup before that happens, Snaterse said.

The idea is for a team of mental healthprofessionals to be located in one space, 24 hours a day.

The team will have doctors and psychologists, but also staff withan intimate knowledge of community and health care programs. There will also be peer support workers to offer advice from the perspective of someone who's been through similar experiences.

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"It's not good enough that we deliver a lot of service. And it's not good enough that we care for a lot of people, if people can't find their way into the right service for them," Snatersesaid.

"For many years, we haven't necessarily been behaving as a co-ordinated system. In fact, I've had a hard time referring to our services as a system, [which] implies there's coordination and it's easy to navigate."

AHS has about 3,000 staff in the Edmonton area who work in mental health and addictions.

But it's not always easy for people to connect with them. The grandparents of a teenager recently charged with stabbing a city bus driver said they had been trying to seek appropriate care for the teen for a long time.

Snaterse acknowledged the Royal Alex has many patients who have very high-needs, and the Access 24/7 may not be able to provide their care.

"There might be people who come in medically unstable, they might need detox, they might have a delirium, they may need to be medically stabilized," he said. "We'll make sure there's a clear path to get them to the (emergency department).

The centralization of patient intake isn't exactly new, but Snatersesaid Access 24-7 will set a new bar in Canada.

The Alberta government is funding 20 newstaff for the clinic, while other mental health care workerswill be shifted from other locations.

MLA's health crisis

NDPMLA David Shepherd shared his own story of a mental health crisis 13 years ago. He struggledwith his mental health for yearsbefore reaching a crisis point, he said.

His family doctor had moved out of town, and Shepherd said it was hard to figure out where to go. He eventually found an outpatient program at the University of Alberta Hospital, but the hours were limited and there were no guarantees of seeing a doctor.

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"It was a challenge even for me to reach out for help in the first place," he said.

"I was raised in a community where you didn't talk about mental health or those issues of emotional and mental struggles.

"They were a matter of faith; you sought counselling there. It took a lot for me to even get to the point where I was even able to ask for help."

Shepherd eventually went to the clinic.

"It started me on what was, frankly, a long journey to finding stability and wellness," he said.