New Government, New Opportunity, and an Old Problem with Access to Mental Health Care

Abstract

For those concerned about access to mental health services, the present moment in politics holds promise. A federal Liberal government has been elected promising to address mental health access issues, a commitment recently reaffirmed by the Minister of Health. In Ottawa, bettering mental health care is nonpartisan: in the last election, every major political party promised action on improving services (unprecedented in federal campaigns); in the last Parliament, all parties supported a national suicide strategy. Good news is frankly welcome news. The interest is there and the need is great: 1 in 5 Canadians experiences a mental health problem in any given year, and they face a patchwork of care; many Ontarians have their first contact with the mental health system through the emergency room (roughly 1 in 3 with an anxiety disorder), according to a newly released Health Quality Ontario–Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (HQO-ICES) report. Access is problematic—especially if the bar is raised to the standard of access to evidence-based care. Consider recent articles published in this journal: