Lougheed says NDP plan will help people in Nipissing access mental health support

NIPISSING — Erika Lougheed, NDP candidate for Nipissing, says that the NDP’s plan to make mental health care universal will mean help is there when people in Nipissing need it.
“It has been heartbreaking to watch the mental health and addictions crisis in Nipissing explode,” said Lougheed. “The crisis is growing because too many people who need support can’t afford to pay for it, and so they struggle without.”

Lougheed **joined Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath at an event in Toronto on Sunday, April 3, wherein Horwath announced that an NDP government in Ontario will deliver Universal Mental Health Care.
“Some of it is obvious, like the people we see in our communities everyday living rough and in pain. Some of it is subtler, but no less painful — like kids struggling with anxiety, or people experiencing the stress of financial pressure brought on by the pandemic.
“Mental health care is health care. In Nipissing as everywhere in Ontario, you should be able to access care for mental health challenges with your OHIP card, not your credit card. This is a timely, foundational announcement that responds to the challenges people are facing in their lives right now."
The Doug Ford Conservatives have cut more than $2 billion in planned health spending, while the Liberal government under Kathleen Wynne and Steven Del Duca froze mental health funding for young people for more than a decade, causing wait times to skyrocket.
“Making mental health care universal — like Andrea Horwath and the NDP are committed to doing — will mean help is there when people in our community need it.”
BACKGROUND

Universal, Publicly Funded Mental Health Care
Andrea Horwath and the NDP will start by expanding access to counselling and therapy services across the province:

• As a first step, the NDP will ensure public access to psychotherapy for everyone.
• A Horwath government will introduce a minimum of six sessions for treatment through OHIP, rising to 12 sessions for patients who need it. This approach allows for people to start with six sessions and decide with their care provider to enroll in the second step or move to more complex care.
• The NDP will fund primary care doctors, nurses, community health care workers, and social workers to be trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to increase the number of available, affordable, and culturally appropriate CBT practitioners.
• The NDP will focus on expanding the existing Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program working with existing community-based providers to bring them into the publicly funded system and grow networks of interdisciplinary teams for mental health care.
• The Ontario NDP will introduce legislation that recognizes mental health is as important as physical health and ensures that mental health services provided by qualified health care professionals and community health workers are insured through OHIP, whether they are provided in a hospital or community health centre.

Fixing the mental health system

• The mental health system is described by advocates as fragmented and disconnected. Vital information, oversight and planning needs to be in place.
• The NDP will create Mental Health Ontario, a new coordinating organization that will take the lead on identifying and publicly reporting on mental health needs, developing a comprehensive wait list for services, bring in province-wide mental health standards, creating a basket of services, and making sure that mental health and addiction programs are delivered comprehensively across Ontario.
• Reduce the waitlist for children’s mental health to 30 days
• There are now over 28,000 children and youth waiting for mental health treatment, up from 12,000 in 2017. Children and youth can wait up to 2.5 years for mental health care. The average wait time is two months for counselling and over three months for intensive treatment.
• A Horwath government will implement the Make Kids Count Action Plan as laid out by the Children’s Health Coalition. The plan calls for an investment of $130 million over the next three years to build intensive treatment and specialized consultation services, increase access to psychotherapy and counselling, family therapy and supports and to scale 24-hour crisis support services to ensure children and youth experiencing a crisis have an alternative to going to the emergency department.

Supportive Housing

• The Mental Health and Addictions Leadership Advisory Council has recommended that 30,000 new supportive housing units be built over 10 years for people living with mental health and addictions challenges.
• In the NDP’s Homes You Can Afford housing plan, Andrea Horwath lays out her plan to deliver these new supportive homes.

Strengthening the sector

• An NDP government will provide an immediate eight per cent funding boost for Canadian Mental Health Association branches and provide ongoing sustainable funding. This would equal a $24 million increase in 2022-23.
• The NDP will introduce targeted hospital funding to increase the number of Tier 5 treatment beds for people with complex needs. The high rates of comorbidity between serious mental illnesses and common physical health conditions and substance use pose additional risks.
• Improving Crisis Response
• An NDP government will immediately invest $10 million more into mobile crisis services and $7 million more for safe bed programs to support mobile crisis teams.
• Then, work towards establishing 24-hour civilian community mobile teams across the province to operate in partnership with Mobile Crisis Response Teams and respond to low-risk crisis situations.

Costing

• Universal publicly funded mental health care: An NDP government will get to work immediately to expand therapy access with a $500 million investment. When fully implemented, the estimated cost of providing this coverage will be $1.15 billion annually.
• Reduce the waitlist for children’s mental health: The “Make Kids Count” Action Plan calls for an investment of $130 million over the next three years – starting at $15 million in annual funding this fiscal year and growing to $58 million by 2023-24.
• Strengthening the Sector: The annual funding boost for Canadian Mental Health Association Branches will require $24 million in annual increased investment.
• Improving Crisis Response: An immediate and ongoing annual investment increase of $17 million for mobile crisis teams and safe beds.
• Experts estimate that every $1 invested into a mental health care program would yield, on average, $2 in savings to society (from a low-end $1.78 to an estimated high of $3.15). The full economic impact of an investment in a universal mental health program has the potential to save the Ontario economy more than $10 billion over the next five years by the most conservative estimates. Savings are realized in several areas, including social services, emergency services and justice.
• Because Andrea Horwath and the NDP are committing to a universal program, businesses that offer health insurance or health spending plans now will realize some savings, as well.

**Attached is a photo of Lougheed speaking at the Toronto event on April 3, 2022.