Mental health clinicians will work out of some schools in Nova Scotia to identify troubled children and teenagers, treat mild to moderate problems, and make referrals.
This is one of 33 actions the provincial Health and Wellness Department is taking as part of its five-year mental health and addictions strategy announced Wednesday.
“If we place clinicians in schools and we’re able to work with kids who have mild and moderate anxieties, depressions, behavioural problems at that level, then those wait times (for mental health services) will drop,” Health Minister Maureen MacDonald said at a news conference in Halifax.“(They) won’t need to go to a hospital for service. That will allow the hospital to deal with really serious, chronic or acute cases. That is the whole purpose of what we are doing.”
Other highlights include the screening of every child in the province at the age of 18 months to pick up problems like autism, and expanding a toll-free crisis line across the province for those with mental health issues who need to speak with someone immediately.
“Research tells us that one in five Nova Scotians will be impacted by a mental illness and one in seven will experience a problem with alcohol and drug use,” MacDonald said.
“This (strategy) takes a broad, government-wide approach to ensure that Nova Scotians living with mental illness and addictions have the care, the services and supports they need to live healthier lives and get on the road to recovery.”
About $5.2 million in new funding has been set aside in the 2012-13 budget toward implementing the strategy called Together We Can: The Plan to Improve Mental Health Care and Addictions Care for Nova Scotians, MacDonald said.
The provincial budget for mental health and addictions is $246 million for 2012-13, she said.
Reducing wait times for mental health services to meet standards is part of the strategy, said Patricia Murray, a special adviser on mental health issues with the Health and Wellness Department.
Some initiatives contained in the plan for 2012-13 include $1.4 million toward placing mental health clinicians in schools with an Education Department SchoolsPlus designation (the exact number of clinicians has not yet been determined), $500,000 toward a certified peer support program, $500,000 to expand opiate substitute (methadone) programs, $500,000 toward community agency projects for people with a mental illness or substance abuse, $350,000
toward a telephone coaching program for families who have children with behavourial or anxiety difficulties, $300,000 to improve mental health and addictions services for First Nations Communities, and $190,000 toward a mental health crisis line.
MacDonald said the government has recently put some funds into the opiate substitution (methadone) program in the Annapolis Valley area, and will target other areas with large wait lists.
“We will be looking at other parts of the province, including the Capital district health authority, where there have been wait lists”
The advisory committee charged with making recommendations to the province was made up of 14 health experts, researchers, mental health clinicians and people living with or affected by mental illness. The committee was co-chaired by Michael Unger, a professor of social work at Dalhousie University, and Joyce MacDonald of the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia.
Paul d’Entremont, a member of the advisory committee, said Wednesday the government plan contains all the committee’s recommendations.
“We are very pleased,” he said.
“The number of recommendations that we had are basically all reflected in the action plan that (MacDonald) has for the next five years.”
However, Liberal health critic Leo Glavine said Wednesday that he has concerns mental health care is still not a priority for the province.
“We are just getting around this September (to having) 20 per cent of the schools covered in the province with some level of mental health expertise. That is an area that could have been acted on many years ago,” Glavine said
“We are talking a $5.2-million injection. It is still only about four per cent of the health budget.”
Under the new plan, more mental health problems will be identified at an early stage, but Nova Scotia doesn’t have a sufficient number of mental health experts to treat people, Glavine said.
“Outside of Capital Health, right across from Sydney to Yarmouth, we do not have enough mental health experts to work with other supportive people in the mental health system.”
Progressive Conservative health critic Chris d’Entremont said the overall strategy “looks OK.”
He said he wonders what the funding will look like after the first year and thought there could be more attention to addictions services.
“We need to be looking at methods in providing services to these individuals to truly get them healthy, get them back in the community,” he said.
“These are marvelous people, I think, that fall into certain issues.”
Stephen Ayer, executive director of the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia, said he is pleased with the government’s plan and especially “overjoyed” with the $500,000 toward peer support programming and other funding for families.
The peer support program provides help to people living with a mental illness who are making the transition from a hospital to the community.
“This is a day of celebration. We have been waiting so long for this,” Ayer said.
“There is no negative story (in this). I think the minister has done a great job and the advisory committee has done a great job and we are moving forward with mental health care in this province and hopefully taking a leading role in the rest of the country.”
The move to revamp the mental health system was sparked by concerns about long waiting lists for treatment and how mentally ill people are treated in the justice system, as highlighted by Judge Anne Derrick’s report in December 2010. Hyde died in 2007 after a violent conflict at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.
With David Jackson, provincial reporter
About the Author
Clare Mellor is a general news reporter with more than 20 years experience. She has reported from Bosnia, covered health, business, courts, the Canadian military and politics.
No comments:
Post a Comment