Manitoba Liberals pledge investment in mental health system

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This article was published 15/08/2019 (2215 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba Liberal government would cover clinical psychological therapy under medicare and ensure more psychologists are trained and hired in the province, if elected Sept. 10.

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont outlined his plans to invest an additional $22 million in mental health care Thursday, at a news conference across the street from the Aulneau Renewal Centre in St. Boniface.

“As some have put it, we have a two-tier mental health-care system in Manitoba, where people with private insurance can get treatment but people who can’t afford it often have to do without,” he said.

“Mental health care is health care, and everyone should have access to it.”

Lamont pointed to a poor psychologist-patient ratio in Manitoba, with only 19 psychologists available per 100,000 people, while the national average sits at 49 per 100,000. He pledged to bring in more psychologists and reach the national average within a first term.

Lamont also planned to implement an improved access to psychological therapies program, which would train more professionals (such as nurses, nurse-practitioners and general practitioners) in mental health-care services to help spread expertise province-wide.

He estimated the program would treat 10,000 adults per year, and cost $7 million over four years.

The Liberals would also cover the costs of psychological counselling for children with learning or behavioural disabilities, to the tune of $15 million during their first year in office.

“If we catch mental health issues early and diagnose them early, we are preventing major, major costs down the line,” Lamont said of youth treatment.

While the NDP haven’t released the full scope of its mental-health plans yet, some aspects were mentioned in its campaign platform.

Party spokesperson and former health minister Erin Selby reiterated some of the ideas Thursday, which include doubling the number of counsellors at access community health centres and creating more community-based mental health services.

“We’re fully costing (the NDP plan) out, so that we know that what we’re announcing makes sense. This one, I’m not sure they’ve done that work,” Selby said of the Liberals’ announcement, which pooled multiple promises under the same funding brackets.

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The Tories responded in a written statement, noting several of their accomplishments on the mental health file while in government, such as implementing 27 recommendations from the Virgo report.

“We are doing the work that is necessary to improving mental health and addictions services in Manitoba,” said Kevin Engstrom, a party spokesperson.

“That’s more than we can say for the Liberals, whose plan is unrealistic both in cost and in scope.”

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbu