The Ontario Shores Annual Reports highlight achievements and events from the fiscal year April 1 - March 31. Clinical and financial data are also presented, along with stories from our staff, patients and families.
Admission Admission processes focus on recovery in areas such as therapeutic alliance, promoting hope, goal setting and building trust with patients, substitute decision-makers (SDM), families and other supports. Admission Guiding Principles: Patients are the expert on their recovery and they have...
Trigger Warning: The content below contains information on mental illness and suicide which some readers may find triggering. If you need support, please contact the Ontario Shores crisis line: 1-800-263-2679. At age 28 Andrea was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Without having...
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) is a specific blend of cognitive and behavioural therapies developed to share acceptance-based strategies. It is usually used in the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder and is also used to treat individuals with eating disorders, addictions, anger...
The Borderline Personality Self-Regulation Clinic at Ontario Shores provides services to individuals 18 years of age and older who are diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and are having difficulty managing their symptoms. The goals of this therapy are to reduce symptomatology...
Dual Diagnosis Service (DDS) is a 10-bed specialized inpatient unit at Ontario Shores. The unit provides in-depth assessment by an interprofessional team of professionals for intellectually disabled individuals with mental health disorders and/or challenging behaviours. The DDS team is committed to...
The Dual Diagnosis Outreach program at Ontario Shores provides assessment and psychiatric consultation to individuals with an intellectual developmental disorder and mental health disorder and/or challenging behaviour. Outreach services include a comprehensive assessment and psychiatric consultation...
It is heartbreaking to monitor social media when a patient from Ontario Shores goes missing and the Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS) post a media release in an effort to inform the public and safely return the individual to hospital. I understand why the public must be alerted and the...
Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (Ontario Shores), The Royal Ottawa Health Care Group (The Royal) and Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care (Waypoint) have implemented a unified and upgraded health information system (HIS) to provide seamless care to patients across the three...
Ontario Shores has partnered with Pizza Forno to bring their automated pizza oven to Ontario Shores. Ontario Shores is the first hospital in Ontario to offer this service. Staff, patients, volunteers, guests and members of the community can purchase fresh, artisanal pizza from the vending machine...
In the Spring, Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (Ontario Shores) and Durham Mental Health Services (DMHS) announced their commitment to explore opportunities for greater collaboration. Ontario Shores and DMHS worked together to conduct a thorough analysis of an integration, its...
In May, Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (Ontario Shores) and Durham Mental Health Services (DMHS) announced their commitment to explore opportunities for greater collaboration to enhance mental health care services in the region. Both organizations explored three options, from...
The Board of Directors of Ontario Shores Foundation for Mental Health (Ontario Shores Foundation) is pleased to welcome Shannon Stuart as the new Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation. As an accomplished fundraising professional, Ms. Stuart brings more than 20 years’ experience to the role. She...
Ontario Shores and its Nutrition and Food Services (NFS) is #RisingUp to serve its community during the COVID-19 pandemic. The NFS team have been doing things differently since the start of the pandemic. Outpatients have been struggling with meeting their basic everyday needs due to the closure of...
Halloween is in the rear-view mirror, although the kids’ candy seems to live on in infamy at least until we finally get tired of it and it magically disappears. But now is the perfect time to talk about Halloween 2017 and beyond. Go ahead and grab a chocolate bar out of your children’s stash, heck...
It’s been 10 years since I professionally entered the mental health world. I vividly recall making the move from journalism to communications in the mental health sector and immediately recognizing how little the media and society seemed to care about this issue. I would conduct media searches...
Words Matter. This tagline served as the inspiration for us in the creation of our new mental health awareness campaign. We know that for those with a mental illness, words can hurt and be a barrier to recovery. Ontario Shores reached out to people living with mental illness, their families, our...
For centuries society has affixed names and used labels that have created divisiveness, promoted discrimination and cast shame on things we don’t quite understand. Whether it is equality, gay rights, race issues or complicated health issues, decades have been dedicated to education and building...
If you meet Percy D’Souza today you will find it hard to imagine that he struggled with severe, treatment-resistant, psychotic depression. Percy comes across as high energy, engaging and positive. And yet, just over a year ago, Percy was, as he puts it, ‘a living corpse’. “I had given up on life,”...
When it comes to the stigma around mental illness, some days it feels like it’s one step forward, two steps back. We have come a long way, even in the 12 or so years I have been working in mental health. But every so often there is a trigger that seems to drag us back to the past. Recently that was...
As there is growing attention and interest in the Doctor’s Residence Land I thought I would provide some context for our community and those interested in this proposal. Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (Ontario Shores) reached out to the developer when it seemed to be the consensus...
I get it, it’s complicated. Mental Illness is an illness that unfortunately receives compassion only when it is convenient or easy. As a society, we get Bell Let’s Talk with all the celebrities speaking about their challenges, we have compassion for children’s mental health and maybe, to some extent...