Mental health advocates in Windsor-Essex say it will take years to build a proper system to handle the current crisis.
A group of about 50 community leaders has been working for about 18 months to improve local mental health services for disorders and addictions and thinks it's going to take another three to five years to get it fully functional.
Claudia den Boer Grima, CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association Windsor-Essex County, says youth, psychiatry and housing and homelessness are priorities moving forward.
Sonja Grbevski, VP of Brain and Behaviour Health at Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare, says planning is underway for a downtown youth hub to create a safe and open environment for those 12 to 25 who move out of child services.
"A facility where there would be living skills available, teaching individuals how to cook and how to manage money,' says Grbevski.
The group heard at a forum Wednesday morning that increasing rents are a problem and officials are working on a solution.
Grima says the city has asked the province for $4-million to build more housing.
"We are looking forward to hearing what the PC government is going to be able to deliver to us and then we want to translate those dollars into services on the ground," she says.
Grbevski says two new psychiatrists are coming to the area this summer but at least eight more are needed to handle the volume.
"We need the medical component to keeping healthy and the addiction counselling aspect. We need to have all these other providers as part of that circle of care," Grbevski says.