Concurrent Disorders Support Services (CDSS) will be offering psychiatric appointments to partnering agencies’ clients and staff on-site at Fred Victor Centre, starting in November, 2008.

Dr. Adam Quastel, a St. Michael’s Hospital specialist in concurrent disorders, will be offering the on-site sessions on a bi-weekly basis. They will include:

• Individual consultations to partners’ clients.
• Consultations to individual workers regarding their client.
• Consultation to a group of workers on client issues or topics of interest.

Dr. Quastel will also offer consultation to teams of partners’ workers on their own site, at a mutually convenient time.

CDSS introduced these sessions to improve access to homeless and transient clients, who frequently miss appointments, even when they are fast-tracked. It is hoped that on-site appointments will improve attendance because they are held in the same building as a a drop-in centre, where many clients feel accepted and comfortable.

CDSS will also try to improve attendance through requiring accompaniment, by the partnering worker or CDSS worker as back-up.

As a final improvement. these appointments are paid through a different funding stream, which alleviate income issues of clients not attending.

Please call CDSS at 416-364-8228, ext.365 for an appointment.