OPSEU crashes CMHA Thames Valley annual meeting, implores halt to budget cuts

A worker holds a sign reading 'I got cut' at an OPSEU Local 133 protest, September 25, 2024 (Bailey Shakyaver/CTV News London)

Members of OPSEU Local 133 were protesting outside of a local hotel today, where CMHA Thames Valley Addictions and Mental Health Service (CMHA TVAMHS) officials, stakeholders and the public were gathering for the organization’s year in review.

The 'sick procession' called on officials to stop staff cuts, which have been occurring as the result of a funding shortfall of $2.6 million since March, 2024.

In the words of OPSEU Local President Tischa Forester, the current state of the sector warrants expansion, as opposed to cuts, “we've seen a reduction in almost 100 positions on the front line of community mental health and addictions and helping people who are homeless. Unfortunately, this sector has been seriously underfunded for years.”

OPSEU hoped to call on the provincial government and the funder to help put a stopgap in the crisis of homelessness and addictions and mental health services by increasing funding to at the very least maintain service levels.

CMHA TVAMHS has pointed to an increase in caseload, and case complexity as factors in their budget scarcity – a sentiment which Forester agrees with, “I know that the wait lists are growing across the province and in our agency as well. The wait time for care is increasing, I guess since the pandemic hit. Things have increased as far as people struggling with their mental health and stress and crisis and then that need as well as the acuity for services gone up.”

Signs reading 'stop cuts' and 'we are in danger' at an OPSEU Local 133 protest, September 25, 2024 (Bailey Shakyaver/CTV News London)

Over 15,000 people walk through CMHA TVAMHS' doors every year, and last year it also recorded over 43,000 phone based interactions for those calling crisis and support lines.

Forester said that any investment that’s made into addictions and mental health services helps relieve the burden on other healthcare systems, “investing in community mental health and addictions care keeps people out of the ER, out of the hospital and diverted into the community where they should be getting the supports.”

Despite total revenues of $52.5 million last year, CMHA TVAMHS was short $2.6 million despite a five per cent increase in base funding – the first sizeable boost in a decade.