Psychologists key to mental health

Re: Alison’s secret pain; Mental illness ‘needs to be talked about,’ dad says 5 years after tragedy, by Anne Jarvis, Feb. 21.

Janice Kaffer, CEO of HotelDieu Grace Healthcare, aptly highlights the loss of psychologists at the Regional Children’s Centre. While there are many contributors to Ontario’s inadequate mental health care, central is the government’s reliance on professions other than psychologists to provide psychological services. This is akin to operating hospitals without employing physicians.

The Ontario government appears to discriminate against clinical psychologists. Public service positions for psychologists have been greatly reduced over the past two decades — in child and adult services. Psychologists are not able to be employed at community health centres. They continue to not be covered by OHIP, although a physician can receive OHIP compensation for providing psychological services. As compared with a psychologist, even psychiatrists at present typically undergo less training and education in psychological knowledge and treatments. Ironically, Ontario regulations stipulate that a psychologist must supervise a non-psychologist they employ to provide psychological services. Psychologists are key in generating and utilizing new knowledge about mental illness as they are trained as doctoral-level scientists as well as clinicians. Psychological treatments can be equally effective as medication for some conditions, such as depression. People afflicted with severe conditions such as schizophrenia can benefit from psychological interventions.

Citizens of Ontario have a health system which is biased toward access to biological explanations and treatments such as medications. This is sad given the potential to fully harness our growing understanding of how mental illness develops and is maintained.

Ralph Billingsley, retired clinical psychologist, Essex