Carmant confident of having reversed the trend of access to mental health care

Photo: Christinne Muschi The Canadian Press “Most of the things we have done are related to a reorganization of services,” explained Minister Lionel Carmant.

Thomas Laberge – The Canadian Press in Quebec City

Published at 1:04 p.m.

• Quebec City

Although he acknowledges that there is still a lot of work to be done in mental health, the Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, assures that he has managed to reverse the trend. He cites as proof the decrease in the waiting lists for access to services in recent months.

In May 2024, there were 16,605 people waiting to receive mental health services, according to the government dashboard. Three months later, that number has dropped to 14,585. While the figure remains significant, the minister is confident that it is a “trend” in the right direction.

“We see the decrease week after week,” the minister said in an interview with The Canadian Press in his office at the National Assembly.

Walk-in

Lionel Carmant maintains that it is the addition of walk-in services that has done its job. “The deployment of this measure will allow us to continue to see an improvement in waiting lists,” the minister emphasizes.

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He gives the example of open areas, which are resources for young people aged 12 to 25, their families and loved ones and which offer various front-line services. The minister indicates that there are about forty of them in Quebec.

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“The strategy is to open the front doors and once the person knocks on the door, to make sure to accompany them to the right service,” says Mr. Carmant.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand for mental health, and while it is now behind us, the minister says its effects have not completely faded.

“The needs are still there. The increase in demand is still there. I would say the world has changed since the pandemic. People are more vocal about their mental health needs, but people are also more impatient,” says the minister.

Asylum seekers and mental health

Premier François Legault has made immigration his hobby horse and has constantly hammered home the fact that the federal government must better distribute asylum seekers across the rest of Canada. In June, he made a “certain link” between “the explosion in the number of asylum seekers” and “the explosion in the number of homeless people and people with mental health problems.”

Asked during the interview whether it was necessary to reduce the number of asylum seekers in Quebec to reduce waiting lists, the minister answered in the negative. “Not at all. We want to improve access to the service.” “It's the priority and it's not something I take into account in my decisions,” he assured.

“It's certain that if there are fewer immigrants with mental health problems, it will help [the situation],” added the minister.

Tightening up public finances

Lionel Carmant also assures that his government's desire to tighten up public finances after its historic deficit of $11 billion will not have any repercussions on mental health services.

“Most of the things we've done are related to a reorganization of services,” explained the minister. He gives the example of the deployment of walk-in services in CLSCs.

He also indicates that positions are funded, but that they are slow to be filled due to the shortage of manpower. “It's more of a human resources issue than a funding issue,” said the minister.