Ministers must not leave mental health out of new accord
TheStar.com – Opinion/Commentary – ‘There is a crisis that desperately requires the attention of health ministers: the gap between physical health care and mental health care in Canada.’
Oct. 14, 2016. By CATHERINE ZAHN
Next week the federal minister of health will meet with her provincial counterparts in Toronto to negotiate a new health accord. There is a crisis that desperately requires the ministers’ attention: the gap between physical health care and mental health care in Canada.
We’ve come a long way. Honest conversations have galvanized attention across the country; people with lived experience of mental illness have bravely shared their stories; innovative brain research is reaching a tipping point; novel treatments and care models are emerging. People have come to recognize that there is no health without mental health. But, given the burden of mental illness in Canada, it’s hasn’t been enough.
Canadians with anxiety disorders, depression, suicide and substance use are not getting the help they need and the care they deserve. Wait lists are growing. People are in pain. Lives are being lost. It shouldn’t be this way.
Mental health care is under-resourced in Canada. Mental illness accounts for about 10 per cent of the burden of illness in Ontario but receives just 7 per cent of health care dollars. That translates into a $1.5-billion gap.
Bridging that gap is not just the right thing to do. It’s also smart economics in a country that loses $50 billion a year in lost productivity from mental illness
There is also a wide gap between the quality of care that Canadians receive for physical ailments compared to mental illnesses.
Take, for example, cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT, a widely used evidence-based therapeutic intervention. It is a key tool for treating illnesses like anxiety and depression.
CBT and other structured psychotherapies are not publicly insured except in narrow circumstances. It is covered through third-party insurance providers, but even then, most third-party insurance policies cover the equivalent of one and a half treatment sessions per year.
Can you imagine if that was our approach to palliative care or chemotherapy? We’d consider that unthinkable and completely unacceptable. Yet thousands of Canadians suffering from depression do not have access to a valuable intervention.
It’s outrageous – and deeply unjust.
To begin to bridge the gap, a new agreement must include a stand-alone outcome-oriented investment in mental health.
Under the 2004 accord, Canada’s first ministers signed a 10-year agreement that included $5.5 billion to reduce wait times for five clinical procedures. The initiative was driven by public outcry at the long wait times for these services. Mental health never appears on such lists.
Canadians need to know that Tuesday’s meeting is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring justice, and their Charter-protected right to health care to those who suffer from mental illness. There is no health without mental health.
Our health ministers should know that Canadians with mental illness and their families won’t stand for being left out of the health accord again. We can’t stand by while another 4,000 Canadians die by suicide this year. We won’t let inaction fail another generation of Canadians.
Anything less than a meaningful investment will perpetuate the prejudice and discrimination that is familiar to Canadians with mental illness.
Plenty of time has been spent on strategy. It’s now time for action.
Catherine Zahn, MD, is president and CEO of The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
< https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/10/14/ministers-must-not-leave-mental-health-out-of-new-accord.html >
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, jurisdiction, mental Health
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You would think that with all the great mental health fundraising and awareness raising initiatives that have popped up over the last few years that mental health care in Ontario would be a thing of the past. Personally, for me, I found it easier as a teen to access mental health care. The wait times were less and the professionals seemed to know what they were doing. Fast forward 10 years and I am on a 9 month long wait list to access specialized counselling services despite the “severity” of my situation. Sure, if one wants to go into the private sector wait lists will drastically decrease, but most health insurance plans do not cover counselling/psychological services within their benefits package and if they do, the coverage is usually under five hundred dollars per year (most psychologist/private counsellors charge between one hundred and one hundred and fifty dollars per visit). The article briefly mentions lived experience. I think that those with lived experience should be utilized in this situation. What better way for someone to learn what is needed, what works and what needs fixing within the system than those who have experienced it. I also believe we need to start talking about and treating mental illness the way we treat physical illness. Why is it more shameful and harder to get help for a mental illness in comparison to a physical ailment/illness. It is highly probable that people are going to question a physical illness diagnosis. It’s not okay to ask someone with lung cancer if they used nicotine products. So then why is it okay to ask someone with a PTSD diagnosis for example what they did/what happened that was so traumatic? I honestly believe there won’t be a change in the way mental health care in Canada is handled until mental health stigma is addressed.