Page 4 - GBGH Foundation - Mental Health Case For Support

Better healing starts here.

YOU make it possible.

Whether it’s a new mom coping with post-partum depression, a teenager with suicidal thoughts,

a university student suffering from cripplingly anxiety, a grieving widow or a senior struggling with
dementia, mental health challenges affect us all.

Mental health is health.
And it’s a rapidly growing challenge that cannot be ignored in our region.

Currently, Georgian Bay General Hospital (GBGH) cares for approximately 1,700 mental health patients every year.

This works out to about three patients in crisis every day. The problem is: our hospital doesn’t have acute mental
health services.

We’re not equipped or funded to care for mental health patients. Therefore, when a patient arrives in crisis at our hospital,
we have to transfer them to an acute mental health bed at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH), Orillia Soldiers
Memorial Hospital (Soldiers),Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care (Waypoint) or due to lack of beds, sometimes even

further.

However, when beds are full across the region, which is common, our patients must wait at GBGH until an appropriate bed
becomes available — sometimes for days — delaying care and contributing to a worsening of their mental health state.

4 • MENTAL HEALTH CASE FOR SUPPORT