About the program

Mission statement

Western University Extended Campus Program (ECP) is an academic and clinical program in the Department of Psychiatry at Western, and together with the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa, is one of the three founding members of the Ontario Psychiatric Outreach Program (OPOP). We are committed to maintaining strong ties that facilitate academic growth through collaborative education and research, as well as high-quality psychiatric care in under-serviced communities in Northern Ontario, through clinical services and support of continued recruitment and retention efforts.

Although various alternative funding sources cover the cost of direct clinical services coordinated by the ECP operating unit at Western, administrative and academic assistance for those services is delivered with the help of OPOP support and information sharing. 

To achieve those goals, our primary objectives are:

• to collaborate with the departments of Psychiatry of the medical schools in Ontario for the provision of psychiatric health care to Northern Ontario and to continue sharing expertise and information with OPOP on all the related issue
• to deliver active clinical services for the remote and under-serviced areas of Northern Ontario through face-to-face and tele-video consultations, in collaboration with the North of Superior Counselling Program
• to organize educational and research activities related to provision of psychiatric care to Northern Ontario
• to deliver medical-education events for physicians and other mental-healthcare professionals in rural and distant areas of Ontario.

The ECP program includes:

1. Collaborating areas within Northern Ontario
2. Sites throughout Southwestern Ontario (included as part of Western Distributed Education) 
3. The North of Superior Program

Collaborating areas within Northern Ontario 

Several psychiatrists currently practicing in Sudbury have academic affiliations with Western. The ECP faculty devote their professional time to train medical students and family-medicine residents during their Psychiatry placements. Many have developed academic ties with other medical schools. Psychiatrists in Sudbury also have an affiliation with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM). Outreach is performed by ECP-affiliated psychiatrists at various Sudbury-area locations, including:

• Blind River
• Elliot Lake
• Espanola
• Manitoulin Island (including Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nation and Wikwemikong)
• Western Distributed Education

Western’s Distributed Education program offers rotations to Western residents. The rotations provide an opportunity for residents to experience learning, living, and working in many locations throughout Southwestern Ontario. The main sites include:

• Chatham
• Owen Sound
• Sarnia
• St. Thomas
• Stratford
• Woodstock
• Windsor

North of Superior Program

The North of Superior Program (NOSP) is part of ECP. A group of faculty from the Department of Psychiatry at Western provide fly-in and videoconference psychiatric services to communities located in the Thunder Bay District, in collaboration with the North of Superior Counselling Programs, the local mental health agency. The communities include:

• Nipigon - View it on Google maps
• Schreiber - View it on Google maps
• Marathon - View it on Google maps
• Manitouwadge - View it on google maps
• Longlac - View it on Google maps
• Geraldton - View it on Google maps

These services fall under the umbrella of the Western ECP Director. Exploration into the needed expansion of services for North of Superior communities is facilitated by NOSP leadership. 
  

Research

ECP is participating in an OPOP research survey to evaluate mental-health services in Northern Ontario by comparing communities that are served by OPOP to those that are not.  
 

Contact information

• Director of ECP: Dr. Giuseppe Guaiana
• Acting Administrative Assistant: Monique Lewis 

OPOP Annual Report 2018-19