Pictou West MLA Karla MacFarlane is pressing the government to explain how 46,000 people in Pictou County can access quality mental health services now that there is no serving psychiatrist.
Speaking in legislature Thursday, the interim Progressive Conservative leader said that over the last three years New Glasgow’s Aberdeen Hospital has lost not only psychiatrists but also its short-stay unit.
“We know that the crisis has been brought to a new level with regard to mental health. We have lost, as of today, our one and only psychiatrist for the next – well, we don't know, they're off,” said MacFarlane to Minister of Health Randy Delorey.
The minister replied that the government had earmarked “a disproportionate amount of new investment,” for youth, partnering with schools to expand the SchoolsPlus program.
SchoolsPlus is designed as a ‘one stop shop’ offering children and their families access to government services including mental health at school.
“…in young people is when mental health conditions first expose themselves and getting treatment and diagnosis early is better for the long-term care of these individuals,” said Delorey in response to MacFarlane.
But MacFarlane pressed Delorey to at least promise a locum doctor to fill in for the psychiatrist until a replacement can be found.
The minister said that the Nova Scotia Health Authority and IWK are “working diligently,” to recruit psychiatrists across the province, but there is a Canada-wide shortage of such specialists.
Recruitment efforts are nonetheless ongoing for specialists both in hospitals and communities.
MacFarlane’s Pictou East colleague Tim Houston said that demand for mental health services in Pictou County “greatly outpace,” whatever is available.
“Access to help is hard to find. Follow-up is lacking. Many people don't have a family doctor and they're forced to go to a walk-in clinic to try and get a referral to a psychiatrist, and you can imagine how that works out for them,” said Houston in Legislature.
Often, residents of Pictou County are forced to either make do without any services or seek help in Antigonish or Truro.
Even those who receive help elsewhere must face the possibility of being away from friends or family if they undergo treatment for an extended period of time.
Delorey said there were many different treatment options including community care, in-patient services and consultation with specialists. In some cases, a specialist will not be required and other mental health clinicians can step in.
“There is more work to be done, and that's why we're continuing to invest in this as one of our key priority areas,” said Delorey.
But Pictou Centre MLA Pat Dunn, who witnessed the exchanges between MacFarlane, Houston and Delorey, was not convinced.
“We are in a crisis and the government maintains that everything is okay,” Dunn told The News.
