Nova Scotia says the first phase of its long-promised universal mental health-care program will begin this spring, with therapy costs covered by the province for people with anxiety and mood disorders.
Brian Comer, minister of mental health and addictions, made the announcement Wednesday, saying that soon Nova Scotians will be able to self-refer to a program for therapy from master’s-level social workers, psychologists and registered counselling therapists.
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“We made a commitment to Nova Scotia: universal mental health and addictions care. That means no matter where someone lives in the province, no matter what issue they are facing, they can get the mental-health care and support that they deserve for free,” Comer told reporters.
In August 2021, the Progressive Conservatives led by Premier Tim Houston pledged that Nova Scotia would become the first province in Canada to offer universal mental-health care.
Comer said the department is working on recruiting 50 clinicians to take part in this first phase and aiming to bring on another 200 clinicians within the next two years. The department estimates that it will triage and assess 125 people per month with mood and anxiety disorders.
The minister said the goal is to eventually expand access to publicly funded care for patients with a range of mental-health needs, but the province is starting off with mood and anxiety disorders as part of a “targeted, manageable approach.”
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Francine Vezina, executive director of the Office of Addictions and Mental Health, said mood and anxiety disorders have been selected for the initial rollout because they’re the most common conditions of patients on the province’s non-urgent mental-health waitlist.
“We’re hoping with the first level of this program . . . to alleviate some of the pressure [on the health system]. Nova Scotians need supports, and there’s increased demand in the area of mood and anxiety disorder,” Vezina said Wednesday.
Vezina couldn’t provide statistics but said there has been a gradual increase in the demand for this type of mental-health support in Nova Scotia since the coronavirus pandemic began.
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NDP health critic and family physician Dr. Rod Wilson said he’s glad to hear about progress toward universal mental health, but he has many questions about the rollout and about whether the government can find enough clinicians to staff the program properly.
“With the goal to have 250 clinicians by two years, that’s a lot of mental-health workers and I don’t know of any mental-health practice that has the capacity to take on extra patients right now. So that’s a big red flag — I’m skeptical we have the resources to deliver this.”
Wilson said there’s dire need for province-wide, publicly funded mental-health care, but he’s worried there are holes in the plan. He also said the province should move away from the fee-for-service model that uses private clinicians and instead bulk up the mental health-care capacity in the provincial health system by hiring mental-health clinicians to work alongside doctors and nurses in collaborative care clinics or community health centres.
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