'It's just about finding that balance': P.E.I. looks to replace, renew and develop mental health facility

The plan to redevelop Hillsborough Hospital has taken a significant step forward.

The Prince Edward Island government has tendered a request for proposal to prepare a development plan to replace, renew and develop a central mental health and addiction facility to serve all Islanders.

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Robert Henderson, the minister of health and wellness, told CBC on Thursday the province wants to renew its delivery of mental health services.

"We want to look at all the options around a campus-style site that will provide different forms of delivery of mental health services to the province," Henderson said.

A campus-style facility means there would be different specialties in different areas in a particular site, like a university campus would be set up, in order to ensure a variety of services in a central location.

Henderson said the province wants to modernize how it delivers mental health services to its residents. One of the ways to do that, he said, is to replace and use the institutional component of the Hillsborough Hospital.

Because the building is past its prime, Henderson said it's become incumbent on the province to prepare for its replacement.

"We are now in that process. We have money allocated in the capital budget," he said.

"There's about $17-millionthrough to 2021, and that should start the commencement of getting shovels in the ground and starting to replace it."

However, Henderson said no actual budget has been finalized and he could not estimate the actual cost of the project.

Because there is a lot of ground to cover in terms of infrastructure and services planning, Henderson said the province will allow this request for proposal to take its time in order to "have a good hard look at how this would be delivered."

Stepping stones

One of the government's top priorities, Henderson said, is getting a transition house as that is where the gaps are.

It would house eight to 10 people at a time and be a support location to the larger facility, though may not necessarily be physically connected.

"There has to be a phase, a stepping stone to get reintegrated back into society and back into the community," he said.

"So, we're trying to make a more conducive facility that's more focused on wellness and reintegration and that transformation is part of the process."

Slow and steady

Despite a speedy start to projects like the Cornwall bypass, Henderson said this project requires more focus before making any decisions.

"The reality is that the delivery of mental health services in this province is much more complex than changing a route of a road," he said.

"We want to make sure we're looking at all the best practices that are out there, what other jurisdictions are doing, and we want to kind of blaze our own island path as far as how we would deliver that as it meets the needs of Islanders."

Henderson said despite not wanting to make it a completely institutionalized facility, he understands the need for that kind of component.

"It's just about finding that balance again and delivering it in the proper format," he said.

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