Housing as health care topic of recent HLE event

Posted on Monday, October 21st, 2024

Algonquin College, in partnership with Ottawa Public Health, hosted the latest edition of its Future of Health and Wellness Speaker Series event on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024.

An attentive crowd attended online and in person in Nawapon to discuss housing as health care.

Many Canadian cities, including Ottawa, are facing intertwined homelessness and mental health crises, resulting in more people without stable housing or access to mental health and substance use support. Across the country, there is growing discussion on better integration of health and housing systems. By collaborating to increase affordable housing and provide client-centered health and social services, including mental health and substance use support, various sectors can help people maintain stable housing, improve health outcomes and alleviate pressure on hospitals and shelters.

Algonquin College President and CEO Claude Brulé moderated the conversation and welcomed panelists Mark MacAulay, President and CEO, Ottawa Salus; Kelli Tonner, Executive Director, South East Ottawa Community Health Centre; and Tim Aubry, Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa and co-chair, Canadian Housing First Network – Community of Interest.

Clara Freire, General Manager of the City of Ottawa’s Community and Social Services department, opened the event saying, “success hinges on bringing supports to people where they are giving supports as long as they need them.”

Tonner painted a picture of the current landscape. “We are seeing people from all walks of life experience trauma living in a constant crisis,” she said. “It’s difficult to live without a stable home. It is a constant state of stress and anxiety. Living under those conditions had implications for overall well-being and health. It’s difficult to deal with your blood sugar levels when you are trying to feed your kids and figure out where you are going to live every day.”

“Where we are at today is the worst we have been in terms of homelessness,” said Aubry. “It’s a perfect storm. There are low vacancy rates, particularly around affordable housing, we have folks that are really struggling with mental health and substance abuse and completely disconnected from health care so it’s a real challenge. Add to that the opioid crisis which in the past few years has just skyrocketed.”

Aubry said despite the many challenges he remains hopeful, noting how there are effective strategies that are working but they need to be “scaled up.”

Tonner suggested creating strategies and systems that are interdisciplinary and intersect. “We need to be able to readjust how we work and create a system of teams that can respond to the crisis in front of us and prepare for the next crisis that is coming.”

While the panel agreed that there were many factors that cause housing instability, Aubry argued the biggest factor was the lack of having a family physician.

All three panelists agreed that agencies and government collaborating is the best way forward. Each seemed optimistic that true collaboration, especially at the highest levels, was happening in new ways at increased levels.

MacAulay mentioned a current effort called the “Bumblebee Project” because it’s about cross pollination (between organizations and agencies).“It’s going to take strong leadership,” said Tonner. “We all need to work together.”

A link to view the session will be available soon.

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