the royal launching new urgent care mental health clinic, despite fiscal challenges
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rosalie létourneau (r) and kamila bangoura (in chair), both rtms technicians at the royal's neuromodulation research, demonstrate a treatment with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rtms) during a media tour. this treatment treats depression and uses magnetic pulses to stimulate brain networks.
jean levac
/
postmedia
construction is still underway at the front of the royal, but in a few months, work crews will give way for a new urgent care mental health clinic — a first for the region.
the clinic represents a new chapter for the regional mental health hospital on carling avenue, a transformation that is moving ahead despite challenging financial times for ontario’s hospitals.
“we are not going to get more money and the demand for mental health services is unprecedented, so we have got to figure out bigger, bolder, brighter ways to do business,” said hospital president and ceo cara vaccarino. “sustainability is about finding new ways to do things.”
the hospital’s new urgent care clinic is moving into repurposed former office space including a direct entrance from the front of the building. it is being built with money from the hospital’s foundation.
“we did not go to the provincial government asking for more money to open our urgent care clinic,” said vaccarino during a media tour of the construction, along with treatment programs and research initiatives.
like more than half of the hospitals in ontario right now, the royal is in debt. as of march 2025, it had a deficit of $6.5 million. the province has told hospitals to balance their budgets within three years.
vaccarino said that does not mean hospitals can stop innovating.
“just because our system is under siege from a financial perspective, it does not give hospitals the right to abdicate their responsibility to innovate and find solutions,” she said.
at the royal, innovation comes in the form of faster access to care and new treatments to help patients with mental illness who have not responded to traditional treatments.
the walk-in clinic is expected to serve between 20 and 30 patients a day with urgent mental health needs, said stephanie carter, executive director of clinical services at the royal. it should help take some pressure off busy emergency departments across the city, she said, but may also mean that patients get help more quickly because mental health care will be its only focus.
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the hospital also highlighted innovative treatments, some of them still at the clinical trial stage, that are part of a push to bridge the often lengthy gap between research and care.
“the goal is to help more people reclaim their lives from mental health and addictions by improving access to care and improving outcomes,” said chris ide, president of the royal ottawa foundation for mental health. the foundation is set to announce what it says is the largest gift to mental health and addiction in ottawa’s history next month as part of a new fundraising campaign called lives reclaimed.
among the hospital’s innovations is a clinic that specializes in ketamine treatment for depression. the royal conducted the first clinical trials in canada using ketamine to treat depression. now it is offered as evidence-based treatment for people whose depression doesn’t respond to standard therapy. patients are administered ketamine under medical supervision intravenously or through a nasal spray.
the royal is also studying the effect of ketamine as a fast-acting treatment for suicidal ideation that can help bridge the gap between a mental health crisis and ongoing care.
ketamine, which has long been used as an anesthesia, is now considered among the biggest breakthroughs in psychiatry in recent years, said dr. jennifer phillips, who is scientific director of the hospital’s bmo innovative clinic for depression.
the royal is also researching the treatment of depression that doesn’t respond to conventional treatments using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. the non-invasive brain stimulation delivered through magnetic pulses directly targets brain circuits involved in depression, making a difference in a significant number of patients, said scientist sara tremblay.
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the treatment is free for patients whose depression is difficult to treat. that treatment, still at the research stage, reflects the hospital’s approach that research is care.
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