{"id":48536,"date":"2026-06-08T13:24:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T18:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/?p=48536"},"modified":"2026-06-22T13:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T18:40:21","slug":"portage-brief-mental-health-homelessness-and-substance-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/portage-brief-mental-health-homelessness-and-substance-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Portage Brief | Mental health, homelessness and substance use"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p class=\"lead\"><em>This brief is available in French only.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Portage has submitted a brief entitled <a href=\"https:\/\/portage.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Memoire-de-Portage-2026-Sunir-pour-mieux-soutenir-Final.pdf\"><em>\u00ab S&#8217;unir pour mieux soutenir : du rep\u00e9rage \u00e0 l&#8217;arrimage des services sp\u00e9cialis\u00e9s pour un r\u00e9tablissement durable \u00bb<\/em><\/a> as part of the national consultations on mental health, homelessness and substance use in Quebec.<\/p>\nSupported by an extensive consultation process involving clients, their families and frontline teams, this document highlights key issues related to access, coordination and continuity of services.\n<h3>Why this brief matters<\/h3>\n<p>This brief comes at a time when issues related to mental health, homelessness and substance use are increasingly interconnected and complex. In the field, individuals often face fragmented care pathways, marked by delays in access, a lack of continuity, and difficulty accessing the right service at the right time.<\/p>\n<h3>What we are seeing on the ground<\/h3>\n<p>Consultations conducted by Portage highlight several concerning findings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>access delays that weaken motivation and delay intervention<\/li>\n<li>persistent stigma that discourages people from seeking help<\/li>\n<li>care pathways marked by fragmented services<\/li>\n<li>late entry into care, often at a more complex stage<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Real impacts on individuals<\/h3>\nThese challenges have direct consequences on people&#8217;s trajectories. The absence of timely or appropriate intervention can lead to a worsening of issues, deterioration in mental and physical health, as well as a loss of stability and hope.&#8221;If I had received help from my first psychosis, I probably wouldn&#8217;t have gone as far in my substance use and I wouldn&#8217;t have lost everything.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8211; Resident, Adult Program, Pr\u00e9vost\n<h3>Acting earlier, improving guidance and support<\/h3>\n<p>The brief proposes concrete actions to improve service trajectories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>strengthen early identification and intervention<\/li>\n<li>improve the efficiency and timeliness of access mechanisms<\/li>\n<li>better integrate substance use, mental health and physical health services<\/li>\n<li>increase support for families and reintegration pathways<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>The role of Portage<\/h3>\n<p>With over 50 years of experience, Portage aims to actively contribute to the evolution of the system by leveraging its field expertise and continuum of services to offer more accessible, humane and needs-based care pathways.<\/p>\n<em>This brief is available in French only.<\/em>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/portage.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Memoire-de-Portage-2026-Sunir-pour-mieux-soutenir-Final.pdf\"  target=\"_self\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the Brief\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n<h3>\n\t\t\tRELATED CONTENT\t<\/h3>\n\t<p>Share this article:<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/?p=48536&#038;fl_builder&#038;title=Portage+Brief+%7C+Mental+health%2C+homelessness+and+substance+use\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Facebook\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&#038;url=https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/?p=48536&#038;fl_builder&#038;title=Portage+Brief+%7C+Mental+health%2C+homelessness+and+substance+use\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Linkedin\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This brief is available in French only. Portage has submitted a brief entitled \u00ab S&#8217;unir pour mieux soutenir : du rep\u00e9rage \u00e0 l&#8217;arrimage des services sp\u00e9cialis\u00e9s pour un r\u00e9tablissement durable \u00bb as part of the national consultations on mental health, homelessness and substance use in Quebec. Supported by an extensive consultation process involving clients, their&#8230;  <a href=\"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/portage-brief-mental-health-homelessness-and-substance-use\/\" class=\"more-link\" title=\"Read Portage Brief | Mental health, homelessness and substance use\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":48557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[178,175,289,290,370],"class_list":["post-48536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-quebec-news","tag-addiction","tag-adolescents","tag-harm-reduction","tag-mental-health","tag-mother-and-child"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48536"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48539,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48536\/revisions\/48539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}