The Community Psychiatry Program provides an opportunity for psychiatric residents to experience their training within a community setting.
Community Clinical Electives
These community opportunities include experiences in child psychiatry, forensics, psycho-geriatrics and northern and rural Manitoba clinics and are available to all PGY2, PGY3 and PGY5 residents throughout their academic year.
Residents are expected to make eight visits per year to widen their knowledge of community psychiatry.
The community experience is meant to challenge the resident to think outside the medical 'box' and approach problems from a systems perspective while dealing with complex mental health challenges.
As per RCPSC expectations, PGY4 residents rotate through Shared Care on a half-day basis from September to June.
Their collaborative clinical interventions within primary health care expose them to the exciting opportunities to working within the community.
Residents are challenged to look at new potential opportunities arising within the community program, some of which may not be listed here, such as Klinic.
Core rotations – EPPIS and PACT are available (see below)
Family Medicine Residents at the Northern Connections Medical Clinic are exposed to Shared Care as part of their regular first year mental health training requirements.
Program overview
The Community Psychiatry Program is situated within the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s jurisdiction and is comprised of a number of specialized programs that provide mental health services to clients within primary care and a variety of mental health settings. The following programs provide core and/or elective opportunities for residents:
Community Living Psychiatric Service
The Community Living Psychiatric Service clinic is responsible for dual diagnosed clients who have an intellectual challenge and a mental health disorder. The program is situated at ACCESS Fort Garry/ACCESS Norwest - the program has three part-time psychiatrists and a team of four nurses.
Co-occurring Disorders Initiative
The Co-occurring Disorders Initiative team is comprised of several psychiatrists and three or four clinicians with expertise in the area of addiction services including mental health and addictions. The psychiatrists have expertise in the management and treatment substance disorders. Treatments include the use of suboxone and methadone. The team offers dialectical behavioural therapy to individuals through class and group therapy opportunities. The program provides residents a special educational opportunity to learn about co-occurring disorders and dialectical behavioural therapy.
Crisis services
Since 2013, the Crisis Response Centre has been open to provide walk-in services for clients wanting to speak to a mental health professional.
Our crisis walk-in centre is available 24/7/365.
The mobile crisis service (tel:204-940-1781) provides phone and direct crisis assistance around the clock.
We also have a brief counselling/treatment service available for helping a client through their crisis and assisting them to move beyond it.
The crisis teams also have access to the Urgent Follow-up Intensive Treatment Team. The team provides group classes/therapy and Psychiatric Urgent Referral Clinic psychiatric consultations when a non-emergent assessment is needed.
The crisis stabilization unit (204-940-3633) has 16 beds provides short stays for clients to manage their crisis issues over a four to seven-day period.
Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Service (EPPIS)
The Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Service (EPPIS) addresses the clinical challenges of clients who suffer a first episode of psychosis. The program works to get clients into treatment as early as possible and work with them towards health recovery over a two-year period. The program has allied health, psychology, and psychiatry staff who work together as a team to provide the needed services within the community.
Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT)
Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) has four mental health teams aimed at providing a recovery-orientated treatment, supportive, rehabilitative and crisis service.
This includes:
- PACT – Hargrave
- PACT – Leila
- PACT – Winnipeg West
- PACT – Logan
This is an multidisciplinary team that follows the PACT model developed at the University of Wisconsin. They provide care for nearly 400 participants who have severe and persistent mental illness diagnoses and are requiring intensive involvement by a specialized team with particular experience in co-occurring disorders, specialized treatments such as clozapine and rehabilitation and recovery-orientated practice.
Mental Health Teams
Mental Health Teams is a redesign project to align community health workers and other professionals using a team approach to oversee regional mental health care needs.
Teams include specialized staff such as Community Mental Health Workers, a therapist, transition specialist, and a child and adolescent worker.
The psychiatrist plays a role by supporting community mental health workers within their specific region in the city, by providing consultative and educational support to primary care/agencies and by assessing clients who are not assigned to a specific mental health program.
This initiative was first introduced in the west of Winnipeg located at the ACCESS Winnipeg West. It has expanded to ACCESS Fort Garry), ACCESS Norwest and ACCESS Downtown/Point Douglas.
Two of these sites also have access to Child Psychiatry.
Health Outreach and Community Support
The Health Outreach and Community Support team is a consultation service that aims to improve access for focus populations’ including those who are homeless to have access to primary care and behavioural health services while at the same time decreasing the use of emergency services.
Health Outreach and Community Support supports partner agencies in their efforts to meet the health needs of their clients and encourages partnerships between community agencies, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and applicable government programs in daily operations and through the Health Outreach and Community Support community network.
Shared Care Mental Health
Shared Care provides a collaborative approach to managing and treating mental health clients within primary care and is based in 25 clinics, including private fee-for-service clinics and Access Centres within the City of Winnipeg.
Fourteen Shared Care psychiatrists, one psychologist and over 20 counsellors are co-located within family physicians/nurse practitioners’ offices delivering mental health services (consultation/therapy) to meet the mental health challenges within primary care.
Working side by side with primary care providers creates a unique relational opportunity that enhances mental health delivery as described by Dr. Pamela Wener’s research of our program.
The range of diagnostic challenges is vast and affords the opportunity to work to improve patient outcomes and support primary care providers at the front line of mental health care provision.
The Shared Care program is now beginning to offer geriatric and child psychiatry consultations as well.