'Huge gap' Between Mental Health Needs And Funding, Expert Says After Health Deal Fails

A failure to reach a deal on healthcare funding has sparked a renewed call by some experts and advocates, to boost funding for mental health, with a psychologist saying there is a "huge gap between the burden of illness and how much we are investing."

Federal and provincial ministers failed to reach a deal on healthcare funding on Monday. Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Health Minister Jane Philpott already offered $11.5 billion over 10 years for home care and mental health, with a 3.5 percent annual increase in health transfers over the next five years to the provinces and territories.

Around one in five Canadians is diagnosed with a mental health or addictions issue in their lifetime.

According to Newsinvideos, the unintended consequences of gaps in mental health care are all around u, we see it in people in the streets, in ERs and even in our jail system, Patrick Smith, a psychologist and national CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) says.

 Smith added that if it were something like hips and knees, people would be picketing in the streets that there is such a huge gap between the burden of illness and how much we are investing.

Canada cannot continue to have so many people die by suicide, the CEO of Childrens' Mental Health Ontario, which represents publicly-funded mental health centers across the province, says.

"We think children's mental health is at a crisis in this country and that the provinces and the federal government have to act, no matter whether this agreement goes through or not," Kim Moran says.

"It is urgent and it is a crisis." He added

Some hospital-based cognitive behavioral programs exist but the wait lists is said to be up to three years long. Cognitive behavioral programs offer short term psychotherapy to teach people ways to change thinking patterns or behaviors.

Smith, who has worked in British Columbia, says getting the therapy from a psychologist who is in private practice can cost up to $250 per hour. The CMHA said, of the billions spent on health care in Canada, about seven percent of it goes to mental health while 13 percent of health care budget goes to mental health in the United Kingdom, according to CBC.

But evidence from the UK and Australia, where the state offers "no cost" psychotherapy by psychologists and social workers with psychiatrists as consultants, show long lasting benefits. Dr. Catherine Zahn, CEO of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, appreciates how the issue of mental health is now on the table of the healthcare funding negotiations.

Zahn credited increasing awareness and emerging science on how patients can recover with appropriate care and support with putting it on the agenda. Dr. Zahn, Moran and Dr. Smith are hopeful that a deal on mental health funding will come.