Discussions

The SMA is asking the next government to make further investments in rural mental health and addictions treatment. This echoes pleas by rural physicians for access to mental health and addictions treatment professionals such as counsellors, psychologists or psychiatrists, and the ability to call on their services on short notice. Lack of access is particularly acute with children’s mental health care.

At the PHAC, the replacement of the most senior content expert, the chief public health officer, as leader with a bureaucrat with no knowledge of public health led to a dumbing down of the scientific information with important messages being lost, or not recognized or put on to a lower priority for fiscal or political reasons.