A municipal committee trying to get answers from Nova Scotia Health Authority about local mental health services said it is getting frustrated by the provincial body’s lack of response.
Municipality of Pictou County Warden Robert Parker said during a recent property services meeting that himself, Pictou Mayor Jim Ryan and New Glasgow Mayor Nancy Dicks have been appointed by Shared Services to look at the current status of mental health, especially crisis mental health, but it is not getting any response to its requests for meetings.
“We have had no co-operation from the Nova Scotia Health Authority,” said Parker in a release. “They keep saying a communications person will get in touch with us, but we need to talk with people who know what is actually taking place. Currently, we are not even hearing back from the Communications person.”
After The News brought forward the municipal leaders’ concerns to the health authority, the authority then reached out to the municipal leaders to arrange a meeting with managers of the Mental Health and Addiction programs in Pictou County.
“We hope that the meeting will be scheduled for later this week or next week,” the response said. “We apologized to Mayor Dicks, Mayor Ryan and Warden Parker for the delay in our response to their request. We expect that the meeting will provide the opportunity to discuss local crisis response services and follow-up community based services.”
Prior to receiving that information, Parker said the three municipal leaders were able to speak with one physician, but no one else has been made available by the health authority. He said the committee would like to speak to people who work in mental health as well as people who have used services in the Northern Zone in hopes of getting a clearer picture of the situation.
Parker said what the committee has heard from the community so far as well as recent stories in the media about people in need of crisis mental health services being turned away is concerning and makes their goal of acquiring the facts even more important.
“‘It is a problem that we are not getting cooperation from the health authority,” he said. “We are not out to make anyone look bad, we just want to improve service here.”
He said it’s an issue that need attention.
“We just know that there’s a lot of real concern out there in the community and people are dying.”
