The important programs and services and the staff that deliver them will remain the same but the Canadian Mental Health Association Hastings and Prince Edward Counties now has a new name.
The agency’s name will now be the Enrichment Centre for Mental Health. The Centre’s Executive Director Sandie Sidsworth says the name change and rebranding is an effort to clear up confusion between the services it offers and those offered by Addictions and Mental Health Services Hastings and Prince Edward.
In a corresponding move, Addictions and Mental Health Hastings Prince Edward will join the CMHA’s 29-member Ontario network and will be named Canadian Mental Health Association Hastings and Prince Edward within the next few months.
Also in the near future, all of Addictions and Mental Health Hastings Prince Edward’s staff will move into space next to the Enrichment Centre for Mental Health at the Avaya building on Sidney Street in Belleville.
Executive Director of the newly created Enrichment Centre for Mental Health Sandie Sidsworth says there was a lot of confusion for people, many of whom are already in a stressful situation, about the services offered by what used to be CMHA Hastings and Prince Edward.
“People would come to us looking for psychiatric treatment or other hard clinical services and that’s not what we do. Those kinds of acute services have always been offered through Addictions and Mental Health. We offer services such as community counselling, supportive employment, skills training, grief and trauma counselling, suicide bereavement help, and transitional housing. We’ve been in talks for a few months now and we believe our new name Enrichment Centre for Mental Health, recovery, resilience, renewal, will help more people get to the right place for help right off the bat.”
Executive Officer of what will become CMHA Hastings Prince Edward Gary Laws congratulated Sandie Sidsworth and her staff and the legacy they’ve left over the past several years.
“Without a doubt this is a very important transition between our two organizations that will improve how both of our agencies operate.”
Laws went on to say that while names are changing the services offered will not.
The changes for both organizations will not affect staffing or budgets.
From left to right: Barinder Gill Associate Director of Business and Communications for what will soon become Canadian Mental Health Association Hastings and Prince Edward, Sandie Sidsworth, Executive Director of the newly created Enrichment Centre for Mental Health (formerly CMHA Hastings and Prince Edward), Camille Quenneville, CEO Canadian Mental Health Association Ontario, and Gary Laws, Executive Officer of what will become Canadian Mental Health Association Hastings and Prince Edward Counties. (Photo: Quinte News)
