NUPGE Presents Brief to National Health Commission of Canada
May 27, 2008
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) has presented a brief to the Mental Health Commission of Canada recommending broad change in four key areas – the national public health care system, health human resources, community-based social services and the criminal justice system.
The commission was created last year by the federal government, in co-operation with the provinces and territories, to provide an ongoing national focus for mental health issues. Many of NUPGE’s members across Canada work in the health care system, including mental health services, as frontline care providers.
"More and more Canadians are growing concerned about our inability or unwillingness to provide accessible and high quality mental health services to all who may need them," NUPGE president James Clancy says in a letter to commission chair Michael Kirby.
"We all look for those moments in life when we can make a difference. This is one of those rare moments. The creation of the Mental Health Commission of Canada may be the clearest and most direct chance we’ll ever have to make positive change. We look forward to working with the commission to grasp the opportunity at hand and prove that a different world is possible," the submission says.
"These workers have given extraordinary service in bringing better health to Canadians. They are intimately involved in the health care system, working with patients on a daily basis. Based on the unique experiences of these workers we believe we can provide valuable insight and common sense recommendations to the work of the commission."
In submitting the brief to the commission, the union hopes to contribute to the development of a new national strategy to deal with mental illness at all levels in Canada.
"We recognize there are many other important areas related to mental health reform that must also be addressed, including action to tackle stigma and discrimination," the brief says.
"Clearly, profound change is essential if people living with mental illness are to receive the help they need and deserve. The task has never been more formidable. The need has never been greater. We remain optimistic that with the creation of the Mental Health Commission of Canada the time has come when meaningful change can and will be made. We look forward to working with the commission to help make meaningful change a reality."
In Manitoba, the provincial government has taken some positive steps towards addressing mental health issues, starting with to a $6 million plan for Canada’s first mental health ER, which will be located adjacent to the Health Sciences Centre. This, in addition to the recent announcement to hire 20 new mental health professionals will ensure that front-line mental health professionals will be there to deal with people who present themselves at emergency wards.
It’s believed that about 10,000 patients arrive at general emergency rooms every year with mental health issues. It’s hoped that secluding emergency psychiatric care from other health care would not only reduce emergency room wait times, but would also allow for more specialized care at both psychiatric and non-psychiatric facilities.
The brief can be downloaded here.
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The mental health system in Manitoba, we as parents can speak of greatly but sorrowfully. Try to get help for a teen over the age of 16, impossible. First because you are a parent and have no access to any mental health information of your teen, BUT are asked to come pick them up from a adolescent treatment centre , if they should be given this oppurtunity. They hand you the prescription and tell you make sure they take their meds, Yet when you ask what are they on and why, you are told this is confidential.But as you leave they want you to fill in a form that asks you as a parent what you thought of their service for your child. ( you can only imagine our response). When we tryed to get a phychiatrist opinion, We had to personally phone from dr to dr trying to beg someone to see our child. ( it was good we worked in the health care system and knew a few back doors). Amazing we are responsible financially for them till they are 18, yet are not able to have any information on their mental or physcial health. It not only impacts on the person needing the help but it impacts the whole family ( know a good Phychiatist?) just kidding but our EAP has had its run for its money. The list goes on about experiences in the mental health system but because we work in the health care system, we feel so failed by a system we try so hard to uphold for our clients, THAT'S AMAZING!
pat chartrand - 2008-06-01 22:05