For the first time in seven years, the Niagara Health System has a psychiatrist to head up its mental health and addictions program.
The NHS has been hunting for a psychiatrist since 2005, and on Wednesday it announced Dr. Edgardo Perez, who has worked in both the private and public health care sectors, will assume the role.
“We have been looking for a long time. And we were not just looking for a psychiatrist, we were looking for the right psychiatrist,” said NHS interim CEO Sue Matthews.
Perez, 61, the former CEO of Homewood Health Care, a private mental health and addictions centre in Guelph, said he wants to revamp the way Niagara treats patients with mental health problems.
He wants to recruit more psychiatrists, build teams of psychiatrists, doctors and nurses and effectively create a mental health system that while it takes advantage of the new hospital being built in St. Catharines — which will feature an 81,000-square-foot mental health centre — reaches out to those in need.
“The fact is that many of the people who need help are not the ones who come to the hospital,” he said. “We need to be in the community, reaching out to those people so we can help them.”
Perez, originally from Puerto Rico, said his first order of business is a systematic review of NHS mental health services along with community resources, so his department can hit the ground running when the new hospital opens its doors on Fourth Ave. in early 2013.
“At this stage in my career, I am focused on the importance of relationships and community building,” he said. “There are big challenges here, but Niagara does have resources and a community, which is very important.”
Perez’s appointment is the most recent piece of news on the local mental health-care front. In June, Pathstone Mental Health announced it is building a 50,000 square foot, $8-million facility to treat children with mental health problems in Niagara. The NHS also recently hired 24 mental health nurses.
Perez said he wants to leverage community resources, like Pathstone, to build a mental health community that will attract more psychiatrists to the region — a difficult task, because competition is fierce and the caseload in Niagara is high due to a shortage of psychiatrists.
“If you build a community, if you have teams, then the psychiatrist is not working alone. That becomes much more attractive,” he said.
Although Perez is the manager of the department, he said he will still treat patients.
“I will tell you a story. When I was the CEO of Homewood, I had all the responsibilities of management and public health, but I went to my clinic day and night and saw patients,” he said. “I think it is vital that you continue to see patients.”
Source: St. Catharines Standard