Fort McMurry Community Mental Health Program

Fort McMurray is situated about 450km northeast of Edmonton. It is situated just south of the Alberta Oil Sands. It has a population of roughly 80000. Although most of the population is residents, there is a large transient/commuting population that work at the oil sands.

The hospital is a designated facility under the Mental Health Act. It has a 10-bed acute in-patient psychiatric unit which provides services to patients with a host of various mental health concerns, ranging from situational crises to psychotic disorders. There are 4 psychiatrists that man the unit and share on call duties. An allied multi disciplinary team runs an in-patient program on the unit. There is a comprehensive Crisis response Team that works out of the ER, to assess and follow up with people.

The psychiatrists also run their private clinics in the community. There is no specialised Child psychiatrist but one of the general psychiatrists does see children.

There is a well serviced Mental Health & Addictions community walk in clinic which houses Addiction Counsellors, Mental Health Therapists and 2 outreach teams, namely Assertive Outreach and Street Connect. These 2 teams follow complex care patients in need of regular support and /or Long Acting Injectables, often chronically ill patients and the latter deals primarily with the homeless population. There is also an Addiction recovery/treatment in-patient centre as well as an Opiate Dependency Program/clinic.

Residents and medical students would have the opportunity to gain experience in caring for addiction related disorders and severe and persistently mentally ill patients as well as caring for the acutely ill via working in the hospital and with the various teams in the community.