Support services are being enhanced for people in crisis in York Region through the York Support Services Network.
The network serves individuals with developmental disabilities or mental illnesses, and their caregivers, through a number of services and programs.
Over the course of the pandemic, the organization has seen a large increase in crisis calls to its 24/7 support line, from 11,000 people annually before the pandemic up to 20,000.
"There's been a significant increase in need in the community. The pandemic really has impacted people's mental health and so when we were looking at our services and the increased need at the call centre, we didn't see a corresponding increase in the beds in terms of the number of people who wanted to access the bed for short term," said executive director Kimberly Thorn.
York Support Services Network provides short-term stays for adults experiencing a mental health crisis.
Currently the beds are located at a single location in Newmarket, but as of April 1, 2023, they will be spread out across Newmarket, Thornhill and South Simcoe.
"We wanted to explore offering services across our catchment, because we serve York Region, and offer people the opportunity to either stay in their home community where they may already have connections or go someplace different if that's what they needed. Being able to offer choice to people felt really important," Thorn said.
The second enhancement is partnerships with different community agencies to further expand supports. This includes the Krasman Centre, which offers peer-support based programs, and Reena, which provides residential services and other programs for people with developmental disabilities.
"We recognized people often during crisis need support to wrap around them," Thorn said.
She said this is an opportunity to partner with agencies already doing this kind of support work to expand on York Support Service Networks in-house programs.
It has been providing support to the community for more than 40 years and said it evolves as an organization to meet the changing needs of the people it serves.
