Mental health advocate approves relocation of youth mental health centre

Another advocate for people struggling with addiction is applauding the province's decision to relocate the youth mental health centre from Campbellton to Moncton.

Progressive Conservative Health Minister Ted Flemming announced the decision last week, months after calls to move the almost-built centre from the grounds of theRestigouche psychiatric hospital to a more central place in the province.

The government said it will spend $10 million in 2020-21 to repurpose the Campbellton building as a drug rehabilitation and treatmentcentre with24 beds.

The Moncton centre will be important in the continuum of help mental health patients should receive,said Trevor Goodwin, president of the Child and Youth Care Association of New Brunswick.

"Having a place where people can get their treatment and be assessed and have those issues met immediately, is then going to allow for people to be in a better situation to move along their continuum," Goodwin said.

Goodwin, who is also thedirector of theYMCA's outreach services, said the next possible next steps for these patients would be supervised housing, a residential care program, an addictions program, independent living or transitional housing.

• Province to move youth mental health centre to Moncton from Campbellton

"People can't access those levels of their continuum, if they're still battling with their mental health, their addictions, their traumas."

Goodwin, who is also senior director of outreach for the YMCA of Greater Moncton, said it made sense for the youth mental health centre to be relocated to Moncton, since the city is a "the hub" for services related to mental health and addictions.

Bernard Richard, the province's formerchild and youth advocate, issued a report in 2011 calling for a centre to be constructed in an urban centre near a university research facility, close to specialized services and in a place where recruitment and retention would be easy.

Flemming's decision to move the centre has been well-received by people working on behalf of the mentally ill and young people, including Norm Bosse, the New Brunswick child and youth advocate.

Mental illness a growing issue

Goodwin said the need for suchservices is the highest it's ever been, particularlyissues of addiction and mental health.

"It's just increasingly growing day to day," he said. "And you can see that with our vulnerable population on the streets and those that are in our foster care system and residential care programs."

He said it's new anxiety and no coping skills.

Health minister announces relocation of young mental health centre from Moncton to Campbellton

5 years ago

Duration 1:52

Ted Flemming said the provincial government will move a young mental health centre from Campbellton to Moncton.

"You add in things like addiction and trauma. It's a cocktail that is unfortunately exploding."

There are now 12 beds at Campbellton Addictions Services and another 12 in Saint John.

He said the planned centre in Moncton will help cut down on wait times and save money, and people won't have to drive up to Campbellton and back again.

The waiting game

The wait to get into a mental health programs ranges from two months to more than six months.

"The longer that they go without being seen, the more they feel that they're not worth it, that they aren't being heard."

Construction of the $14.4-million youth centre was described as about 90 per cent complete when work was halted earlier this year while a review of the plans was underway.

The decision to put the centre in Campbellton was made in 2015 by the previous Liberal government.

"Moving it to northern New Brunswick didn't seem to make sense to a lot of people," Goodwin said. "To know that it's coming back here, I think it's a fantastic idea."