A healthy reminder

Rafe Mair unloads on the Campbell government for going out of its way to ignore the needs of mentally ill British Columbia residents:

Nancy Hall's mandate was to look for the mentally ill who needed help. For her efforts, she was fired. At that time, I editorialized thusly. "I believe the minister, Dr Cheema, to be a very sensitive, well motivated man who sincerely wants to make things better for the mentally ill. I believe the premier shares that feeling. But they are not going to identify the problem, nor be able to bring solutions to bear, without help from those whose jobs don't depend upon results."

The Campbell government, concerned only with the bottom line, could see that if Nancy Hall were kept on much longer, the mentally ill would be found and that would add significantly to burdens on the health care system. It is not, therefore, extravagant to say that a solid part of the first Campbell government's fiscal savings were on the backs of the mentally ill...

There are simple remedies:

1. Every doctor, before getting a licence, must have a thorough grounding in mental illness. This requires the coming together of government, the medical school, the British Columbia Medal Association and private agencies.

2. The BCMA should maintain a list of family doctors who are able to deal with mental illness and will take new patients.

3. Recognizing that dealing with mental illness requires more time with the patient that usually expended on patients, Medicare must recognize this fact with a better fee schedule.

4. The office of mental health advocate must be resurrected with the mandate to see that those who are mentally ill have access to help as well thus guiding the ministry of health to where the problems are.

It's hard to be optimistic that Campbell will suddenly care about mental health issues when his government was previously responsible for silencing the strongest B.C. voice on the issue...not to mention when the current commitment is a pitiful $8 million for 3 years to deal with issues related to homelessness and mental illness. But if there's no formal advocate left, then Mair is a very strong substitute...and if any significant proportion of those who read his column take up the call, then there may yet be a chance of reversing the current neglect.