New City Centre Community Health Access Centre good news for clients & staff
The term “one-stop shop” is used to describe a business that gives customers the convenience of having multiple needs met in one location. Our new City Centre Community Health Access Centre (CHAC), a consolidation of Three Bridges Community Health Centre and the West End Mental Health Team, will do just that.
Set to open in early 2018 at 1128 Hornby Street, the new CHAC will include the full range of services that a person would need for ongoing care. Things like a medical clinic, a mental health and substance use team, and a team that provides health services for young children, plus teams that provide clinical care in people’s homes. There will also be space for community-run programs and access to harm reduction supplies for safer substance use.
The new, larger, space also means that some programs such as mental health and outpatient clinics that have had limited capacity due to cramped quarters at the other sites will be able to expand and serve more people in need in their home community of the West End. The new centre will also be open daily with an after-hours on-call service to provide 24/7 care.
“We have been bursting at the seams at the other sites. In this larger space, we can streamline care by bringing together the expertise of all the programs and services currently at Three Bridges and West End Mental Health Team, and provide integrated clinical care in one convenient location,” said Laura Case, Chief Operating Officer, Vancouver Community. “For example, home care nurses will work on the same team with older adult mental health workers when they share the same clients.”
Staff, physicians and leaders from Three Bridges and West End Mental Health Team are engaged in the design of the new site. We will work closely with our teams as we transition to the new community health center. We are also working with our clients to ensure their input is captured in the design of the new site.
The CHAC is part of a larger strategy to enhance and expand services in the West End/Downtown. Please visit www.vch.ca/westend for more information. To see the news release, please click here.