Mental health advocates fear shutdown of national online resource will leave gaps

As the end of funding for a national mental health portal comes to an end, ad‐ vocates across the country are calling for appropriate alternatives.

In St. John's, Kristi Allan says when she first heard the news of Wellness Together Canada shutting down, she felt defeated and angry.

"I was so upset. I remem‐ ber where I was sitting and just the feeling that washed over me. It was scary," said Allan.

"People who need that service, it's like everybody is just being completely invali‐ dated."

Allan is one of many users of Wellness Together Canada across the country since its launch in April 2020 to sup‐ port those with declining mental health due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since then, the website says it's had 4.2 million visi‐ tors, who came to access in‐ formation and direct mental health and substance use services.

Last month, Health Cana‐ da announced the platform will shut down on April 3, cit‐ ing an end of "the emergency phase" of the pandemic.

Yet Allan, a vocal advocate for more accessible longterm mental health care in Newfoundland and Labrador, said the portal is still needed, as it offers one hour of coun‐ selling plus followups and therefore more continuity than a traditional crisis line. That, in addition to roundthe-clock access to support, she said, was why she recom‐ mended the service to any‐ one in need.

"When you call someone when you're in distress, you have to explain your story. And for a lot of people, that's super-complex. It's very hard. And if you have people who are following up with you, then you don't have to re‐ peat that," said Allan.

"I have a specific friend who can't afford therapy who has used that. I don't know what she's going to do now."

Allan, who has also used Wellness Together Canada herself, said losing access to the platform feels like "losing a lifeline."

"I had used them in really dark times. I am so privileged to have a counsellor. But sometimes, you can't see them at the drop of a hat. And this felt like a safe place to call," said Allan. "To lose it

means on all those nights that I'm terrified, I will feel alone."

Anthony Esposti has heard similar sentiments. He's a board member of the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, and the CEO of addiction re‐ sources centre CAPSA - for Community Addictions Peer Support Association - which offers peer support groups through the portal.

"From the perspective of CAMIMH, we just see it as bad mental health and sub‐ stance-use health policy," he said. "This is a sector that has been chronically underfun‐ ded, and it's created a sys‐ tem of care that's very frac‐ tured and very difficult to navigate. And this one portal provided this low-barrier ac‐ cess to care."

While Health Canada's February statement cited "some improvements in the mental health and well-being of Canadians since the lows of the COVID-19 pandemic," Esposti said it hasn't re‐ bounded since the pan‐ demic's start.

Indeed, while a 2023 Sta‐ tistics Canada survey found that more people described their mental health as excel‐ lent or very good than during the height of the pandemic in 2021, it also found that more people had post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety compared with 2020.

Health Canada hasn't re‐ sponded to a request for comment.

While the federal govern‐ ment said provinces and ter‐ ritories are "best placed" to provide mental health care, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Minister Tom Osborne said provincial services al‐ ready do that - and better.

"Our program Bridge the Gapp has been in place since 2015 and in fact, has been looked at by other provinces," he said. "The vast majority of callers to pro‐ grams use the provincial pro‐ gram because it is more com‐ prehensive."

He said while round-theclock access to support is the only gap Wellness Together leaves behind, provincial de‐ mand for that service seems to be limited.

"Under the federal pro‐ gram, there were a limited number of after-hour calls beyond the hours of pro‐ gramming that Bridge the Gapp has offered," said Os‐ borne. "So we are looking at and evaluating what the im‐ pact of that is, and how we fill that gap."

For Allan, the impact is obvious. She strongly dis‐ agrees that provincial ser‐ vices are more comprehen‐ sive than the national portal she's scared to lose.

"You cannot meet the same need as Wellness To‐ gether if it is not 24/7. That is so important," she said. "I'm a person with lived experi‐ ence. How dare you say what I need, that you know what I need better than me?"

Allan is calling on the provincial government to ex‐ tend provincial programs to round-the-clock coverage and to create a stand-alone department of mental health.

"If [the federal govern‐ ment is] saying that the provinces are able to step in and meet that need, then the government of Newfound‐ land and Labrador has a re‐ sponsibility," said Allan.

"This is, in my opinion, devastating for Newfound‐ land and Labrador, and all of Canada."

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