Action Alert: Extend the Assistive Devices Program to include mental health, premier!

This week, Bill 277 will be debated in Ontario’s legislature. If passed, MPP Terence Kernaghan’s Bill would extend the Assistive Devices Program to include assistive devices to support individuals with mental health needs.

Join us! Call on the premier to support Bill 277. RNAO believes that every Ontarian deserves access to mental health supports.

Research shows that people who lived at home but had access to assistive devices for mental health needs felt more empowered, more mobile, more integrated in their communities and less isolated. The assistive devices also supported greater independent living, greater self-care, less pain and fewer visits to a health or social service provider or a hospital’s emergency department.

Additionally, a hospital bed for one individual with mental health needs costs $454 per day, or $165,710 per year. Conversely, providing assistive devices for mental health needs to that same individual living at home, including licensing and billing fees, costs $12,000 per year. Essentially. providing smart assistive devices to help with mental health needs is good for people and our health care system alike.

Join us! Let the premier know that Bill 277 makes sense and is the right thing to do.