While patients and their families may not notice a discernible difference, a big change in children's mental health services is underway at Windsor Regional Hospital's emergency department at the Met Campus.
Staff from the Regional Children's Centre are working in the emergency department now, but 73 per cent of the kids in crisis coming through the doors are 13 to 17 years old, too old for the services at RCC.
RCC offers programs and services to children aged six to 12, while Maryvale programming caters to older teens in emotional, psychiatric, and mental crises.
Starting April 1, staff from Maryvale will resume the duties of RCC staff in the emergency department.
Executive lead for child and youth mental health services at Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare, Lori Kempe, said the hope is it will streamline services and cut wait times at Maryvale.
"Because Maryvale already has a 24/7, 365 day a year program, that we'll see greater access," said Kempe. "We should now be providing crisis care in our community 24/7."
Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare is the lead agency for both RCC and Maryvale.
Kempe said 444 teens sought treatment at the emergency department at the Met Campus in 2021-22, the last year she had statistics for.
"For the last, probably a month now, staff had been shadowing [workers from RCC]," said Kempe. "There have been lots of conversations between Regional Children's Centre staff, Windsor Regional Hospital's team and Maryvale, so we're hoping that the community won't see anything really different other than it's more available."