An environment for recovery

Non-institutional residential resources aim to provide a living environment adapted to individual needs that promotes recovery, rehabilitation and community reintegration.

The goal of the support and assistance services offered is to create a climate that is conducive to skills development by:

  • Emphasizing individual strengths
  • Using a language of hope and possibility
  • Allowing people to make their own choices
  • Helping develop ties with the community
  • Helping people develop their interests
  • Creating environments that emphasize individuality

In April 2009, the Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de Montréal (now abolished) designated the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and the Institut universitaire de santé mentale de Montreal, both responsible for managing and developing residential resources on the Island of Montreal.

Institutions that can refer people requiring residential support are:

  • General care hospitals (Centres hospitaliers de soins généraux - CHSG)
  • Psychiatric hospitals (Centres hospitaliers de soins psychiatriques - CHSP)
  • Health and social services centres (Centres de santé et des services sociaux - CSSS)

Types of housing

Family-type resources (FTR)

(Section 312 of the Act respecting health services and social services)

One or two persons receiving in their principal place of residence a maximum of nine adults or elderly persons entrusted to them by a public institution in order to respond to their needs and afford them living conditions as close to a natural environment as possible. Supervision 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Intermediate resources (IR)

(Section 302 of the Act respecting health services and social services)

A resource that is recognized by an agency for the purpose of participating in the maintenance of users otherwise registered for a public institution's services in the community or in their integration into the community by providing them with a living environment suited to their needs, together with the support or assistance services required by their condition.

The resource must meet the following criteria:

  • Be a natural or legal person other than a public institution.
  • Be affiliated with a public institution through a contractual relationship other than an employer/employee contract.
  • Provide housing facilities (shelter) and offer one or multiple support or assistance services to maintain or integrate users in the community.
  • Offer services in physical facilities that he or she owns or rents.

This resource may be a:

  • Group home
  • Rooming house
  • Foster home
  • Supervised apartment

Other Resources (OR)

Two types of resources have been developed as part of Section 108 of the ARHSSS:

  1. One type is non-institutional residential resources, which enter into an agreement to deliver more specialized services than those provided in family-type and intermediate resources. This type of resource receives clients with complex clinical profiles or who may require more intensive rehabilitation.
  2. Since the creation of the 2005-2010 Mental Health Action Plan, a variety of independent types of accommodation are being developed that include continuous support services with the help of different community and private partners.

Contact information and opening hours

Douglas Institute
6875 LaSalle Boulevard
Montreal, (Quebec) H4H 1R3