Who we are

Welcome

Welcome to the MHA (Mental Health and Addictions) Website under St. Joseph’s Care Group. We are pleased to provide you and your family with individualized attention and innovative programs to help you achieve your personal goals toward health and wellness.

In this stressful world, we can all benefit from some caring and kindness. The journey toward healing and hope can be difficult at times. We have the outmost respect and admiration for anyone who takes this journey and we are here to offer helpful information and support along the way.

MHA receives more than 10,000 clients per year who have courageously embraced a willingness to take responsibility for their lives and learned to use their strengths to achieve a healthier lifestyle. This website is designed to keep you, our visitors, informed about new developments in service delivery which are constantly changing in response to your feedback and identified community needs.

In recent months, we have been working to further integrate mental health and addiction services and create new programs in order to better serve you. Some examples include:

Balmoral Withdrawal Management Services now offers weekly mental health consultation services available every Tuesday morning from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm.

Psychiatric Consultation Services are offered twice monthly. Please see your counsellor for details.

Our Intensive Residential Services provides a specialized program for women with both eating disorders and substance abuse issues. This program is co-facilitated by staff of both the Eating Disorders Program and Adult Addiction Services.

Peer Support Group of the Personal Development Centre offers weekly support meetings every Monday afternoon from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm for individuals who have been attending educational programs or individual counselling. This consumer support group is facilitated by two dedicated consumer volunteers and is designed to provide peer support as individuals begin to apply the many new skills acquired through our educational programs. Please see your counsellor for more details.

Best Wishes,
Nancy Black, Manager
Mental Health and Addiction Services
Sister Margaret Smith Centre
St. Joseph’s Care Group

Our History

Sister Margaret Smith Centre

The Sister Margaret Smith Centre (a.k.a: MHA - Mental Health and Addictions) was formerly known as the Smith Alcohol and Drug Dependency Clinic and as such has a history of helping those in need dating back to 1972. Over the three decades as a 'clinic', hundreds of men and women came to heal themselves of alcohol and other drug abuse. The renaming of this building in 1997 coincided with the amalgamation of several other local institutions under the 'umbrella' of the St. Joseph's Care Group.

Sister Margaret Smith personally rededicated and renamed this building and site. During the dedication ceremony, Sister Margaret alerted all present that although a broader, and perhaps more holistic, treatment approach was being sought after, the historical foundation of utilizing 12-Step support groups needed to be kept alive and a part of the ongoing evolution of substance abuse treatment.

A little history about the Sister Margaret Smith Centre

• In June 1967, the Special Medical Unit (later to become the Smith Clinic) was opened.
• In November 1972, the Special Medical Unit which had opened in 1967, was moved into the Nurses’ Residence Building and re-named the Smith Alcohol and Drug Abuse Clinic after Sister Margaret Smith. It still functions in this location.
• In September 1997, a rededication & renaming ceremony took place. Now known as Sister Margaret Smith Centre
• In November 2004, the MHA (Mental Health and Addictions) website is born, but the physical building is still known as the Sister Margaret Smith Centre.

A little about Sister Margaret

Sister Margaret

• Born October 8th, 1921 in Woodlawn, Ontario, where she grew up and attended public school and secondary school.
• 1943 – Graduated as a Registered Nurse from the Ottawa Civic Hospital School of Nursing
• 1944 – Entered the Community of the Sisters of St. Joseph in North Bay
• 1947-55 – Served as the Director of Nursing and School of Nursing at St. Joseph’s General Hospital in Port Arthur, Ontario.
• 1955-58 – Served as Executive Director, Sudbury General Hospital
• 1958-68 – Served as Executive Director, St. Joseph’s General Hospital in Port Arthur, Ontario
• 1968-78 – Co-ordinator of Health Services for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Sault Ste. Marie
• 1974-87 – Executive Director of St. Joseph’s General Hospital in North Bay, Ontario
• 1987-88 – Sabbatical leave – School of Applied Theology in Berkeley, California
• 1988-92 – Executive Director of St. Joseph’s Heritage in Thunder Bay, Ontario
• 1992 – Retired.

Presently, Sister Margaret lives at St. Joseph’s Motherhouse in North Bay, Ontario, Canada.