Thunder Bay hospital seeing increased mental illness severity as admissions surge

COVID-19 has yet to overwhelm the intensive care unit at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC), but one department says dealing with the fallout from the pandemic risks becoming unsustainable.

Admissions to the adult and forensic mental health wards initially dropped at the start of the pandemic, according to Dr. Mandy McMahan, the director of adult and forensic mental health.

But the last six weeks have seen admissions surge to pre-pandemic levels, and those admitted are experiencing more severe symptoms than usual, McMahon said.

"For quite a while, a lot of the services that were supporting individuals it's not just mental health services,it's just community services in general that support the well-being of our community with those not being able to operate ... at normal capacity, I think people's mental health and wellness was deteriorating," she said.

New initiatives, changes to how space is used

The hospital has worked to address the need by converting eight private rooms in the adult mental health ward into psychiatric intensive care beds, rooms designed to minimize the risk of a patient harming themselves or others.

An office in the forensic mental health ward was converted into a patient room, McMahan said, and the unit partnered with the John Howard Society to launch a high-support housing initiative last month to supportpatients who are leaving the hospital but who still need a high level of care.

"We're great and flexible and adaptive, but what you really want is sustainability," McMahan said.

"I know everyone is stretched, but it wouldn't be honest to say that we can keep going at this rate without increased funding. ...The care that we provide right now, it is safe, it's effective, and it is certainly efficient. But it's also our duty to let it be known that we need more, and our community needs more."

The Canadian Mental Health Association of Thunder Bay is in the process of ramping up its Joint Mobile Crisis Response Team to pre-pandemic service levels, according toEvelyne Leblanc, the organization's manager of crisis response services. She also said it will be working with the hospital over the coming weeks to try to alleviate the severity of distress doctors are seeing on intake.

More resources needed

A spokesperson for the hospital detailed other needs in an email to CBC: continued efforts toward the safe opening of services in the community, more inpatient mental health beds, and new services such as a mental health emergency assessment service and an acute medical withdrawal space.

Asked if the province would commit to funding the solutions the hospital outlined, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health didn't directly respond to the question but pointed to funding announced in 2019-2020 for 1,445 acute care spaces and 52 mental health beds, including two for St Joseph's Care Group.

It also pointed to its COVID-19 response package, which included $341 million for 1,000 acute care beds, 500 care beds, and assessment centres.

In addition, it highlighted the $12 million it committed to expanding the availability of both online and virtual mental health services and reducing pandemic-related service disruption at mental health and addictions programs across the province.

The ministry said it will invest an additional $594 million in 2020-21 to continue to address capacity issues.