In a post on Facebook
earlier today, Columbia River – Revelstoke MLA Doug Clovechok remarked, “Today
the NDP Government have finally outlined their 10-year plan to deal with Mental
Health & Addictions in BC”.
The BC Government media
release stated that people experiencing mental health and addictions
challenges will soon have better access to the services they need, through a
program outlined in, A Pathway to Hope: A roadmap for making mental health
and addictions care better for people in British Columbia.
Commenting for the government, Premier John
Horgan said, “For too long, little attention was paid to mental health and
substance use care by previous governments”.
“A Pathway to Hope lays out our plan to
help people now and improve the health and wellness of all British Columbians
in the long term. We’re taking a provincewide approach to build a system of
care where services are always within reach and people have the supports and
opportunities they need.”
A Pathway to Hope lays out government’s
10-year vision for mental health and addictions care that gets people the
services they need in order to tackle problems early on and support their
well-being. It identifies the priority actions government will take over
the next three years to help people immediately and reduce demand on
services down the road.
According to the government, the focus will
be on supporting the wellness of children, youth and young adults, supporting
Indigenous-led solutions and improving access and quality of care. The roadmap
will also build on the ongoing work to address the overdose crisis by starting
to establish improved systems of addictions care.
“There is nothing more pressing than
ensuring every young person has the supports they need to not just survive, but
thrive,” said Judy Darcy, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.
“These longstanding problems in mental
health and addictions care won’t be fixed overnight. But by starting to move
from a crisis-driven system to early intervention and prevention – especially
for children and youth – we can help people before their problems become more
severe.”
Support for those suffering from mental
health issues, and the problems surrounding substance abuse, have long been a
topic of concern for me, and I have written a number of commentaries on this
topic – and these issues cross all boundaries.
“Mental Health and Addictions don't care
what your political stripes are; the BC Liberals will continue to advocate for
improved services – such as the Safe Care Act’ remarked Clovechok.
Again, quoting from the government media
release, it indicates that the heart of A Pathway to Hope is a plan to
begin transforming mental health and substance use care for children, youth,
young adults and their families to reach them where they are — in their homes,
communities and schools. This will start moving the mental health care system
from a crisis-based approach to upstream early interventions and begin to
replace the current patchwork of services with wraparound services and supports.
“I am happy to see
this 10-year plan increase the integrated support services with schools and
communities.”, Clovechok concluded.
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