Activists decry lack of care for mental health
Cost-cutting has led to ‘chaos,’ groups say
Complaints about a lack of mentalhealth services are “multiplying ” since the provincial government imposed cost-cutting reforms on the health system two years ago, a coalition of community groups charged on Monday.
“The reorganization of the system has created a lot of chaos,” Anne-Marie Boucher, a spokesperson for the Regroupement des ressources alternatives en santé mentale, told the Montreal Gazette on World Mental Health Day.
Boucher noted that wait times for mental-health services have surged since Health Minister Gaétan Barrette forged ahead with his reform to merge hospitals and clinics across the province while abolishing the positions of more than 1,300 managers.
The reform has led to hundreds of mental-health workers being transferred to different institutions that now fall under the management of newly-created umbrella organizations, known as Centres intégrés universitaires de santé et de services sociaux. At the same time, there have been budget cuts.
“We’ve seen an exponential increase in the number of requests that patients have made to community organizations,” Boucher said.
“Patients have told us that since they can’t get a psychotherapist, they need to get help from the community.”
A 2009 study by the Institut de la statistique du Québec estimated that the mental-health needs of 200,000 Quebecers were not being addressed.
Today, Boucher suggested, that figure is probably much higher because of Barrette’s administrative overhaul.
On World Mental Health Day two years ago, Barrette launched a five-year plan to improve access to mental-health services, with a focus on providing better treatment to troubled youth. But critics have raised doubts as to whether the plan has truly made a difference in people’s lives.
“In Quebec, it’s unfortunate that it is easier to benefit from medications for mental-health illnesses than to receive psychotherapy,” Christine Grou, president of the Ordre des psychologues du Québec, said in a previous interview.
On Monday, mental-health advocates who rallied for better care outside the Mount-Royal métro echoed that view, saying that too often prescription medications are viewed as a magic solution. Indeed, research has shown that Quebec doctors prescribe more anti-psychotic medications than doctors do in most other provinces.
“Yes, medications do have a positive side, and that’s something that we can’t neglect,” said Carolyne Roger, a mental-health worker at Éveil de Brome-Missisquoi in Cowansville, which provides support services for those with mental-health issues.
“But as a society, we need to ask questions about other resources that are not being fulfilled — whether it’s for crisis centres or day centres, or whether it’s to accompany someone to a doctor or to help the person draw up a budget.”
It’s not enough simply to prescribe pills to a patient, she pointed out.
“We need to look at a patient’s whole story — whether, for example, the patient lives in poverty, and what we can do to address that.”