Mental health report brings much-needed hope

The recent Manitoba mental health and addictions strategy report sends a strong message to Manitobans about the current state of mental health and addictions in the province.

The Virgo Planning and Evaluation and Consultant report, Manitoba Mental Health and Addictions Strategy, Improving Access and Co-ordination of Mental Health and Addiction Services, acknowledges the health-care system possesses many positive features. However, it also identifies significant changes required in order to be effective.

The health-care system is severely limited, with silos of care, and promotes barriers to accessibility.

It has been largely ignored for the past 20 years with inadequate funding that falls far below the Canadian average. As a result, Manitobans are getting sicker because the resources and the knowledge required to access the system are absent. "People get sicker because resources aren't available when first reaching out for help," the Virgo report reads.

The challenges include long wait times, onerous intake processes, limited hours of service, lack of knowledge of Manitoba's Personal Health Information Act, inadequate discharge care from emergency rooms and a system in which addictions and mental health care are completely separated.

Collaboration, funding

The report calls for more collaboration and funding increases.

The Virgo consultants spent many hours reviewing reports and documents. The consultants conversed with stakeholders across Manitoba and surveyed Manitobans on the current state of the system. The consultants were respectful and inclusive.

There were many opportunities available to provide information to co-author Dr. Brian Rush, who was readily available and possesses a deep understanding and listening skills combined with a kindly approach.

The Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba (MDAM) provided the consultants with knowledge of peer support and personal lived experience at the grassroots and community level.Our organization strongly believes the consultants heard and listened to our organization's concerns and vision for the mental health and addictions system.

I want to commend Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen for releasing this report. It is an undeniably brave as well as a bold initiative. It calls for a complete overhaul of the system and recognizes resources, cohesion and efficiencies are sadly lacking. However, most importantly, it restores the faith ofservice providers such as MDAM that there are necessary changes that can and will occur, which will create better care in mental health and addictions for all Manitobans.

The report specifically mentions peer support. Peer support is defined as a person using lived experience, compassion and empathy to connect with and support another person through an obstacle or ordeal. The peer-led, peer-driven organizations that provide peer support to the public include MDAM, the Manitoba Schizophrenia Society, Anxiety Disorders Association of Manitoba and the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Organization.

The report requests improved co-ordination of services and supports, including administrative efficiencies. I would welcome the opportunity to bring these organizations together in a more formal partnership of services. As Dr. Rush has correctly noted, we can be much stronger together.

The report calls for peer support to be placed into the Winnipeg Crisis Response Centre as an immediate enhancement.

MDAM, along with sister self-help agencies, has put forward a proposal to the Manitoba government to provide peer support in the emergency setting.

Vulnerable, disoriented patients

For many, the emergency room is the first point of contact with the mental health and addiction treatment system. Patients and their families, at their most vulnerable, often disoriented, in emotional distress and unable to comprehend information, can find the ER experience frightening.

ER staff often do not have time to listen to patient concerns and ensure patients and their families fully understand details about their discharge and options for further community support. This often leads to a boomerang effect in which the patient returns to the ER without accessing care in the community.

I believe this is an optimistic, thoughtful and very hopeful report on the future of mental health and addictions in Manitoba.- Tara Brousseau Snider

Peer support serves as a direct line of contact for patients within the hospital setting and provides many positive benefits, such asinformation about, and access to, community services, followup to discharge planning and immediate support in the recovery process.

Access to care remains a barrier.

The report recognizes the importance of family navigators within the health-care system.

MDAM provides family navigation support through the family navigation program. Family navigators have a substantial impact, offering help to families and their loved ones when they need to know where to go. MDAM's family navigator program advocates for patients and their families and provides connections for support. The program empowers the families of youth and individuals with serious mental health and addictions problems so that all members of the family receive the help they need at the right time, in the right place and from the right people.

The report recommends that these services be expanded and make effective use of the peer support worker in this important role. It can be quite difficult to know what to do and I am filled with hope that families will be able to find help in a far less complex system.

Another recommendation is to facilitate consent that allows families to be part of helping their loved ones. The Personal Health Information Act is not something to be feared, but a guide that respects the privacy of the individual, while at the same time encouraging the support of the circle of caring of those around them.

This is an important recommendation when all too often we have seen people we care about discharged in the middle of the night, alone, and never return.

I believe this is an optimistic, thoughtful and very hopeful report on the future of mental health and addictions in Manitoba. The openness to share the recommendations and work with all of us is inspiring. It promises a future that is caring and supportive for all Manitobans and their families who struggle with mental health and addictions. It provides a solid and very realistic framework for service providers, policy-makers and the government to move forward with the best of intentions.

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