In a press conference Thursday morning, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne addressed a Star investigation into overcrowding at a mental-health unit, saying her Liberal party hopes to make mental health a priority. She also shared that the hospital in question was responsible for saving the life of a family member. Southlake Regional Health Centre is a hospital in Newmarket where patients in the mental-health unit often find themselves among three people sharing a room designed for a single patient. Hospital officials said Southlake has among the highest volume of mental health patients, but the lowest number of in-patient beds in York Region. A Star investigation, compiled after reporters spent two days in the unit speaking to patients and hospital employees, looks into the crisis. When asked about the investigation, Wynne said the difficulty came from the fact that increased awareness of mental-health issues puts more strain on the system. “Your story — which is great — is about a mental health situation in a unit that was built about a decade ago, that was state-of-the-art at the time,” she said. “The reality is that as a society, we are doing a much better job, happily, at understanding who needs mental health care supports and what those issues are. There are people who, maybe 30 years ago, would not have identified, would not have come forward, and now are coming forward, and they need that support.”Read the investigation: We spent two days inside one of York Region’s most crowded mental health units. One patient worried ‘it’s not good for our recovery’It’s why her government is dedicated to “putting $2.1 billion into mental health care supports,” she said. “Let me just say quickly something about Southlake,” she went on to say. “Because I have a family member ... who has actually been in the care of Southlake ... she wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for S ...
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