Victoria Manor is a Housing with Supports home, or, HOWS for short, which were formerly called domiciliary hostels or rest homes. There are 10 HOWS homes in the City of Windsor and almost as many in the County that collectively house close to 500 people with mental health diagnosis, complex physical health care issues, ABIs, developmentally disabled, frail seniors and a host of other people who cannot live independently. Often they are the forgotten people, the unwanted people, the people many wish were not seen. HOWs homes are what lie beneath; we are the ones who collect those who have fallen through the cracks.  The Know Your Neighbour Campaign was started in 2019 as a way for us to destigamatize our Residents and invite our neighbours in to meet us.  

 

Victoria Manor has 118 residents. Our residents have on average 1.75 mental health diagnoses and 2.11 complex physical health issues each. They are on an average on 12-14 medications per person.  The stigma around mental health is that folks like the ones at Vic Manor hurt people; statistics show that they are more likely to be victims of violence then commit violent acts. If you see the police here it is rarely a case of aggressive behavior or violence, and if it is it’s because they are more of a threat to themselves, but sometimes we need the police to help us sort out the complex challenges of communal living. They are a great resource for us when we need mediators. And yes, sometimes they are here to help us help get someone to hospital – and we want that. Sometimes our residents need a stay in hospital to help stabilize their mental health. And yes, we do have people who use substances. But they are a small number. Stigma once again would suggest that all of our residents use substances, but really it is only about 10% of our folks. We do employ an Addictions Counselor for that reason. We operate with a harm reduction philosophy; we are here to help, never to judge.

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It is our goal to host a Know Your Neighbour Week annually - but you are welcome to come for a tour and ask us questions any time.